Ecuador Lawmakers Order Inquiry Into Quito Road Contracts, Set 60-Day Deadline

Ecuador's National Assembly voted on November 6 to investigate public procurement by Quito's municipal public-works company, ordering a parliamentary committee to report within 60 days as questions over road-contract awards continue.

The assembly said 82 lawmakers backed the resolution directing its Oversight and Political Control Committee to examine contracting by the Empresa Pública Metropolitana de Movilidad y Obras Públicas (EPMMOP). The resolution concerns the matter publicly described as the “Asfalto de Oro” case. It empowers the committee to request documents and technical reports and summon public officials, institutional representatives and experts.

The decision establishes a parliamentary inquiry, not a finding of fraud or a criminal conviction. The committee is expected to deliver conclusions, observations and recommendations within the stated 60-day period. The assembly said the resolution would be sent to Quito's municipal authorities, EPMMOP, the national procurement service SERCOP and other institutions.

The inquiry follows allegations about municipal road-maintenance and asphalt procurement. Quito councillor Michael Aulestia previously alleged that related companies and consortiums received about US$65 million in contracts, according to contemporaneous local reporting. That figure describes contracts questioned by the councillor, not money established to have been stolen, overpaid or lost. The claim requires independent examination of individual tender awards, ownership records and payments.

The context also includes October 21 searches by Ecuadorian prosecutors at municipal and associated premises concerning suspected irregularities in two 2024 public-works contracts worth more than US$4 million. Contemporary reporting cautioned that those searches had not been officially shown to concern all the contracts in the councillor's broader allegations. The separate amounts must not be combined or presented as confirmed losses.

Quito's municipality said after the searches that it had provided requested information and would continue cooperating. It defended the use of the official public-procurement system and called for an evidence-based investigation with due process rather than unsupported accusations. No adjudication of the broader allegations is established by the assembly's new vote.

The next verifiable milestones are the committee's formal requests for contracts and procurement files, any appearances by EPMMOP and city officials, the committee's report and any separately documented action by prosecutors. Until those records are available, the established new development is the legislature's 82-vote decision and its 60-day reporting instruction, not proof that a specific supplier or official committed an offence.