Ecuador rejected on Wednesday a Transparency International report on corruption ranking the Latin American country as one of the most corrupt countries in the region.
According to the report released on Tuesday, corruption is widespread in Latin America, and Ecuador was placed 146th out of 180 countries on the
list.
The list grades the countries based on surveys which measure people's perception of corruption in politics and the public sector.
Carlos Polit, Ecuador's comptroller general, said Wednesday that the report is objective due to its "subjective" research.
"This organization (Transparency International) did not visit us. We could have given them enough information for making a better analysis on the
current corruption status in Ecuador," Polit told a press conference here.
The report also shows that Latin American countries with even less corruption are Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, which rank 35th and 43rd respectively, while Chile and Uruguay are the least corrupt countries in the region.
Corruption and growing social inequality have made people in Latin America become disappointed at the democratic system, a special advisor to the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) said Tuesday, adding that one aspect affecting the system in the region is the political patronage system.
The global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, which runs over 90 chapters around the globe and an international secretariat in Berlin, is a leading civil society organization in the fight against corruption.