QUITO, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's Vice-President, Jorge Glas, on Wednesday denied any links to a corruption case involving Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which is being investigated for bribing government officials in 12 countries.
"There is not one proof against me. I have nothing to hide, and my hands are clean," said Glas, during a public hearing before the Fiscal Committee of Ecuador's National Assembly.
In a hearing lasting almost three hours, Glas said that he was never part of any contracts being given to Odebrecht.
"I call publicly on...any state minister or any public company manager to say if Glas ever picked up the phone to ask for anything during a contracting process," he said.
Glas, who was the running mate of President Lenin Moreno in their winning presidential election campaign this year, called for this hearing to review his political history. He was also the vice-president of former president, Rafael Correa, between 2013 and 2017.
He was seeking to quiet voices from the opposition which has accused him of being linked to Odebrecht.
The Odebrecht scandal broke out in Ecuador in December when the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that the Brazilian firm paid 33.5 million U.S. dollars in bribes to Ecuadorian officials between 2007 and 2016, in exchange for being granted public contracts.
During the Wednesday hearing, Glas said that in May a call had gone out for all officials and managers of public companies during the Correa government and past administrations to reveal their financial details, dating back to 1987, when Odebrecht began operating in Ecuador.
He said he strongly backed the call, adding that "let all be investigated, nobody is above the law."
