the following is a babelfish translation of an article from www.elcomercio.com

Too busy right now to do my own translation, but I cleaned up the worst of it. The upshot is, Correa's former professor, Superintendent of Businesses, was fired from his post for corruption. Claims by workers that he made illegal deductions from workers salaries as "voluntary contributions" to Alianza Pais, which were then misdirected to a private account in the name of another AP member were upheld by the court.

This is an important story I've been following since it first appeared because it blows the lid off corruption within AP, and shows that they are not immune to prosecution. Some commentators (not in this story) are now calling for a day of National Protest against the Assembly and AP. With everything that's been going on, this could be a major turning point. Too soon to tell IMO, but I'm watching these events closely and will report everything I hear.

ebear

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Correa's professor dismissed by The Electoral Supreme Court

The announcement of the removal of Francisco Arellano from the position of superintendent of Companies was celebrated at 12:45 yesterday, with the tears, shouts and hugs of satisfaction by hundreds of employees of that organization.

From the 26 of March, they publicly denounced to be victims of continuous abuses of Arellano. From the last week, the plenary session of the Electoral Supreme Court (TSE) said that it would meet to realise the judgement of Arellano, to acquire contributions to new employees and to just promoted.

Yesterday, a group of civil servants, dresses in mourning, met in the intersection of av. 6 of December and Bosmediano, on the feet of the TSE expecting failure. With placards and megaphones they shouted slogans asking, once again, the exit of Arellano. Other denunciations The TSE notified their decision of yesterday to the Constituent Assembly and the Public Ministry so that it continues the investigation that it opened to the ex- Superintendent. According to Arellano, the critics to their management are reduced to the fact that it decided to reduce to the pay of the employees of `Súper', although it eliminated soon it. The wage of Arellano was USD 7 990, which contradicts the Decree that says no civil servant must earn more than USD 4 000.

In agreement with the documentation presented/displayed by the Association of Workers, from January of this year 10% of the pay to 97 people of the offices of the Supervision in Quito, Guayaquil, River basin, Ambato, Portoviejo and Machala were received. The collected money was transferred by the Financial Direction of the Supervision of the account of Elizabeth Verdezoto, Logistic coordinator of of the movement Alliance Country. According to Brave Santiago, president of the workers, was predicted that every month is applied to the discount, until October of this year. Although the employees denounced 18 acts of corruption - between which they stand out the hiring of personnel with excessive pays, abuse of office and I mistreat the employees, the TSE only judged to Arellano by the illegal collection of tithes.

The accused did not go to the hearing: a postponement sent a writing asking that was not accepted by the members of the plenary session. “We applied a symbolic fine to Him (USD 0.40) and the destitution, that is the established maximum pain in Article 55 of Political the Statutory law of Party”, said Jorge Acosta, president of the TSE. The mentioned Law indicates: “… who take advantage their functions to compel others in order that they contribute fiancially to political parties will be punished with a fine from 1 000 to 10 000 sucres. If the violator will be a government official immediately he will be dismissed”.

Although those collections are punished by the Law, the ex- civil servant stayed a year in the position and was even defended by president Rafael, who rejected the accusations of the employees. “Too many years I know professor the San jOse school the Salle to believe that story”, indicated the chief executive to me, when diminishing the denunciations. But the arguments were others that weighed so that five of the seven voices of the TSE voted in favor of the exit of Arellano.

According to Acosta, it was verified that the deductions came in preprinted forms, with preprinted amounts. In addition, within the listing of contributors the company/signature did not consist of, at least, one of the contributors that supposedly authorized the discount. Additionally, the money was deposited in the account of a particular person (Elizabeth Verdezoto) who is not enrolled in the TSE as treasurer of Alliance Country.

Minutes after the judgement, Xavier Chiriboga, solicitor receiver of `Súper', said with satisfaction: “We managed to eradicate the corruption and to rescue our dignity”. For Anabel Vinueza, vice-president of the workers, the fight does not conclude there. “The following step is the purification. They must go away the partisans of Arellano”. In order to realise a symbolic march, from the 14:00 the employees paralyzed the activities. Some women dressed themselves as widows to accompany a `coffin of Arellano'. The route by the streets was made to celebrate, and for “demanding justice”. According to Bravo, “one hopes that the investigation of the Office of the public prosecutor follows and that the new Superintendent is a technician”.


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