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The Superior Audit detects irregularities in the disbursement of 12,276 million pesos in López Obrador's first year

2021-02-20T22:46:26.600Z


In its report on public spending for 2019, the agency points out important anomalies in the Ministry of Culture, the airport that promoted the PRI and the social programs of the new government. The amount is less than half of what was detected in the last year of Peña Nieto


López Obrador, at a Sembrando Vida event in Oaxaca, Presidency / Presidency

In its second report on public spending by the Mexican Government and autonomous bodies in 2019, the Superior Audit Office of the Federation (ASF) detected irregularities in the disbursement of 12,276 million pesos, about 650 million dollars.

It is the result of the analysis of dozens of public works contracts, agreements and direct support schemes from the Executive and independent federal entities.

The work of the ASF refers for the first time to the control of social programs of the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, such as Young People Building the Future or Sowing Life.

The amount is lower than in 2018, the last year of Enrique Peña Nieto's government, when irregularities were detected for 28,876 million pesos, about 1,440 million dollars.

Among the audited entities with the greatest reports of alleged irregularities are the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Welfare and the Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México SA de CV, in charge of the construction of the new airport in the capital, promoted during the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018).

Pemex or the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sports also appear.

With the indications, the ASF invites entities to provide documentation to solve the irregularities.

Failure to do so, auditors can propose sanctions, including filing criminal complaints.

Among the reports to the Ministry of Welfare, a dependency in charge of Javier May, those of the Sembrando Vida program and the scheme of "hiring of Servants of the Nation" stand out.

Sembrando Vida is one of the emblematic social programs of the López Obrador government.

Its objective, according to the secretariat itself, is "to address rural poverty and environmental degradation" through agroforestry projects.

The ASF explains, for example, that Welfare claims to have delivered 74,962 cash financial support to 61,602 beneficiaries for a value of 338 million pesos, but that it did not prove its delivery.

The accusations to the Sembrando Vida program add up to a total of 609 million pesos, about 30 million dollars.

In the case of the Servants of the Nation program, the point is similar.

Attached to the Ministry of Welfare, the ministry in charge of combating poverty, the servers have served as a brigade of the federal government in different situations, the last one, in the logistics of the administration of vaccines against covid-19.

The ASF indicates in this case that Bienestar lacks documentation that proves the payment of 321 million pesos that the secretariat claims to have paid to the nation's servers in 2019. The ASF also says that Bienestar transferred 87 million pesos to three bank accounts "Without presenting supporting documentary evidence" proving that the money was used for the fees of the nation's servers.

Appointments to Welfare for this program add up to a total of 561 million pesos, just over 28 million dollars.

THE COUNTRY has contacted a spokesman for the Welfare Secretariat, who recalled that the ASF allows, at this stage, the audited agencies to resolve the irregularities indicated by the auditors.

The spokesperson did not want to comment on the cases of Sembrando Vida or the contracting scheme for Servants of the Nation.

The old new airport

In the case of the airport planned by the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto in the municipality of Texcoco (State of Mexico), on the outskirts of Mexico City, the auditors point out irregularities in the spending of 3,215 million pesos.

Star project of the previous administration, the incoming government submitted the work to popular consultation.

Before even taking office, López Obrador and his team asked the citizens if they wanted the airfield to be built, a work that would exceed 13,000 million dollars.

Participation in the consultation was low, just one million people, but the answer was no.

López Obrador decided to bury the work, although his government has continued to pay part of the contracts committed during the Peña Nieto era.

Several of the irregularities pointed out by the auditors point to payments made for "concepts outside the original catalog".

Thus, for example, in the contract for the "executive project of runways, taxiways, platforms, navigation aids and other facilities" of the airport, the ASF indicates that eight million pesos were paid in the "design of additional infrastructure for the packages of tender nº 19 (track 3), nº 20 (track 6) ”, etc., a sum that was not originally contemplated.

In the contract for the construction of the "passenger terminal building, access roads, parking lots, control tower and operations control centers", the auditors affirm that "the execution of the architectural accompaniment" was not accredited, which is why the Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México disbursed 229 million pesos, 11.5 million dollars.

The ASF also detected irregularities in payments of 266 million pesos, 13 million dollars, charged to the contract to build "the terminal platforms, the satellite building, the cargo terminal and aircraft maintenance, of the intermodal center building of ground transportation ”and other facilities.

And also in the contracts for the construction of the "foundation slabs" of the terminal and the intermodal land transportation center, for 102 and 63 million pesos respectively.

It is not the first time that the ASF has indicated undue payments in the construction of the aerodrome or in the phase of cancellation of the works.

The auditors pointed out in 2020 irregularities in the payment of 2,598 million pesos exercised in 2018, still under the Government of Peña Nieto.

Culture and debts from previous years

The Ministry of Culture is one of the dependencies most analyzed by the auditors.

The irregularities pointed out by the agency total 1,707 million pesos, just over 85 million dollars.

One of the main ones is the payment of 727 million for alleged debts from years prior to 2019, "without having the corresponding authorization" and without "providing documentation that proves that the goods and services were satisfactorily received."

The second batch of contracts that auditors suspect are with travel agencies, Viajes Premier and Artmex Viajes.

These are two contracts for 206 million pesos, about 10 million dollars.

The ASF indicates that the secretariat did not present documentation regarding the justification of the trips.

The third is a contract with two companies, Vision and Business Strategy and Lore Soluciones Integrales Empresariales de Sinaloa for 190, of which, says the ASF, Culture did not present documentation proving "the provision of services."

According to a source from Culture, this latest contract was signed to hire teachers of music, drawing and theater for children in rural areas.

In total, the ASF makes 27 reports to the Ministry of Culture.

As in the other cases, the agency now has the opportunity to provide documentation that solves the doubts of the ASF.

Asked in general about the number of irregularities detected in the expenditure of the Ministry of Culture in 2018, a spokesman for the agency has indicated "the responsible areas are informed in relation to the requirements derived from this audit and are in the process of continuing to send information would complement ”.

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Source: elparis

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