The tithe, the monthly fee that Ecuadorian politicians demand from their advisors for hiring them

The accusation of former vice president Verónica Abad for concussion – when an official acts for his own benefit – has reopened the controversy over the corruption that tarnishes Ecuador. It is not the first time in the country that an official of this caliber has been denounced for a crime that Ecuadorians simplify with the term “tithe”, which consists of the employees they hire having to pay part of their salary in order to be admitted. , as their followers do with evangelical pastors. The same controversy also affected María Alejandra Vicuña in 2020, Jorge Glas’s replacement in the vice presidency of the Government of Lenin Moreno (2017-2021). But it is not only in politics: that is the price you also have to pay to be hired in a hospital as a doctor, as a police officer or as a prosecutor. The gangs also charge the businesses in the neighborhoods they control. The tithe is the rule.

Vicuña had a vast career in politics. She was an assembly member for Alianza País and held the position of Minister of Housing before the unexpected end of former Vice President Jorge Glas, upon whom two convictions for corruption fell. She had not completed a year in office when she was denounced by Álex Sagbay, who was her administrative assistant during the time she was an assembly member (2011-2013). The complainant presented bank receipts with monthly transfers to his personal account, which, according to him, it was Vicuña who asked him to finance the Alianza Alfarista Bolivariana movement. When Sagbay was promoted to the position of advisor with a salary of $3,300, the tithe also increased to 42%, or $1,400. Sagbay assured that he delivered around $20,000 for the three years that he worked for the then assemblywoman. “No one has conditioned either their income, their permanence, or even their job stability,” Vicuña defended at that time.

When the complaint was public, President Lenin Moreno withdrew all his functions. Vicuña resigned from office to defend herself against her and her judges charged her. She was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay compensation. But it was not the first time that a similar case occurred in the Assembly.

Legislator Karina Arteaga demanded cash payments from four assembly workers to pay the payment for a newly purchased car, the domestic staff at her home, and credit card expenses. In total, more than $45,000. The court sentenced him to six years in prison and the payment of a fine. A court suspended the sentence to prevent her from going to prison. And the same thing happened with the case of Norma Vallejo in 2017, the first Assembly official sentenced for demanding contributions to pay off personal debts, expenses of her office, payments for events and expenses of the Alianza PAÍS movement. A total of 18,000 dollars. She was found guilty, but she did not go to prison by the judges’ decision.

Distrust in Justice is evident in data. Since 2018, when these cases were made public, 265 complaints of concussion were registered, but only 7% had a resolution. The vast majority were dismissed, abandoned or extinguished, according to the Judiciary Council. Exemplary rulings have turned tithing into a public service practice that extends from high powers to middle management of public hospitals. A notable case was that of Juan, a doctor who applied for the position of resident doctor in a social security hospital. “They asked me for $1,000 to enter. They even establish the payment methods, 500 dollars to secure the position and another 500 when you are already inside,” explains the doctor. Public workers who have obtained a university degree or master’s degree to improve their professional profile assume that to obtain a place in a public institution they must pay a bribe for the work they do.

The tithe is in everything. The latest investigations carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office show that the chain of corruption even reaches the judicial system. The quota has been established in the core of society, so that even criminal gangs charge a tithe to businesses, transporters, schools, teachers or for living in certain neighborhoods.

For now, Vice President Verónica Abad will not respond to Justice for the alleged crime of concussion after the decision of the majority of the Assembly not to authorize her criminal prosecution. But since it is a crime that does not prescribe, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that when the second president no longer enjoys immunity she will be taken to court. For now, the Nene case He will have to change his crime again because his son, Sebastián Barreiro Abad, who is the only one linked so far, is not a public official. Neither is Daniel R., the advisor who is not on the Vice Presidency’s staff and who the complainant recognizes as one of the negotiators who asked him for a monthly fee of 40% of his salary that they allegedly demanded for working with the vice president. The tithe rots everything.

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