Last week, Transparency international reported that Ecuador’s National Court sentenced 20 government officials involved a corruption network, known as the Metastasis scandal, that infiltrated the country’s judicial, police and prison systems. The network is linked to drug trafficker Leandro Norero, who allegedly used bribes to keep his operations running even while in prison. Among those convicted are judges, provincial prosecutors, high-ranking police officers and prison officials. Prosecutors alleged that the bribes were paid to manipulate judicial processes and favour criminals, particularly in money laundering cases linked to organised crime. Ecuador’s assessment on the Corruption Perceptions Index has been on a downward trend since 2020, with a score of 34 out of 100 in 2023. Last Wednesday evening, the National Assembly approved Financial Papers 3 and 4 of 2024 amounting to $84.531 billion to meet additional costs of government programmes and activities for the fiscal year 2024. The original budget approved in February of this year was $1.146 trillion. On 9 August 2024, the Assembly approved Financial Papers 1 and 2 of 2024 in the sum of $40.8 billion, giving a revised budgetary allocation of $1.187 billion. Financial Paper 1 was in relation to two advances made from the Contingencies Fund amounting to $8.6 billion covering the period 1 April to 30 July 2024 to meet additional operational costs of Guyana Power and Light Inc., Guyana Rice Development Board and Guyana Sugar Corporation. Financial Paper 2 covered a Supplementary Estimate of $32.2 billion for both capital and current expenditure.