The hidden accounts of the Army: 25,000 million pesos spent in 2020 without leaving a public record

The Mexican Army has managed to leave its accounts in the dark.

The Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) has spent about 32,175 million pesos on purchases during 2020, about 1,554 million dollars, but has only made public the contracts for a fifth of that figure.

The account leaves about 25,460 million, more than 1,200 million dollars, which have left the state coffers without leaving a public record.

Sedena has justified on several occasions that the information is kept confidential because it deals with "national security" matters.

The lack of data on how and on what the military spend the budget has become a common factor in the Andrés Manuel López Obrador Administration due to the large works they are in charge of, such as the construction of the Santa Lucía Airport or part of the Train Maya.

The Superior Auditor of the Federation has also registered irregularities in the disbursement of 246 million pesos, more than 11 million dollars, during 2019, the first year of the Government.

The Army spent last year about 118,328 million pesos (5,716 million dollars), as reported by the Ministry of Finance in the executed budget report.

Of that item, some 32,175 million were spent on buying materials, supplies, contracting services, movable and immovable property, and carrying out public works.

According to the Law of Acquisitions, Leases and Services of the Public Sector, each agency must publish the information of its acquisitions on the official website Compranet.

Sedena only reported contracts for about 6.715 million, about 324 million dollars.

On the rest, no trace is known.

In addition to the lack of accountability, a large part of the money that was registered was given through direct award contracts, an exceptional process in which the provider is chosen by hand and without competition.

A procedure that the Government itself has “emphatically” recommended not to use.

According to the contracts registered in Compranet, 41% of the money spent by Sedena in 2020 was awarded in contracts of this type, about 2,763 million (133 million dollars), compared to 56.5% that was given through public tenders, about 3,799 million (183 million dollars).

This newspaper asked the Sedena about the lack of data on the expenses incurred, but a spokesperson did not respond to questions.

The Ministry of Public Administration, the body in charge of monitoring public employees, contemplates that direct adjudication can be used for reasons of national security.

He asks to prioritize other mechanisms such as inviting at least three suppliers, a type of contracting that only records 2.3% of the money used by the Army last year.

Marco Antonio Fernández, a researcher at México Evalúa, assures that this lack of information portrays López Obrador's “opaque spirit of the Government”.

"Who is reviewing the legality of Army hiring?

Because we have a serious accountability problem, ”he says.

"I understand that the national security excuses themselves with the construction of a barracks, but not a national airport," he adds about the project budgeted at 85,000 million pesos.

Fernández, a professor at the School of Government and Administration at Tecnológico de Monterrey, has published a report that warns of a tendency for the Administration to limit information on contracts.

The other contracts of the López Obrador government

, as the document is called, indicates that direct awards and a category called “other contracts” —used in emergency situations and under which specifications are not reported— have skyrocketed during the first year. of the pandemic.

So has the money awarded through these mechanisms.

While in 2019 some 130,000 million pesos (6,280 million dollars) were awarded by direct award, last year almost 200,000 million (about 9,662 million dollars) were awarded, an increase of 54%.

The increase was so sudden that it positioned 2020 as the year in the last five years in which more money was given through direct awards than through public bidding.

Opposition deputy Mario Alberto Rodríguez Carrillo claims that the Executive has promised to reduce direct awards and has not done so.

“We are on the wrong path.

They are violating the law that says that public bidding should be the rule ”, reproaches the legislator of Movimiento Ciudadano.

Rodríguez Carrillo, who chairs the Superior Audit Oversight Commission in Congress, also warns about the opacity of Sedena's accounts.

“Uploading contracts to Compranet does not put national security at risk.

But if the Army, which is the most credible institution of this government, is involved in a case of corruption, that will be a national security problem. "

Rodríguez Carrillo explains that no contracting mechanism is free from corruption, but that public bidding "allows information to be traced."

Given the criticism that the lack of data has aroused, the Superior Audit announced that it plans to carry out 17 audits this year of the Army.

A dozen will be only from the Santa Lucia Airport, and another two from the hiring in public works.

Sedena's accountability in the past does not set the best precedent.

As EL PAÍS reported in August, the Mexican Army diverted 156 million dollars to shell companies between 2013 and 2019. In one of the cases revealed, the Secretariat diverted 24 million dollars under an agreement to modernize customs, details of which were not known because it had been classified as reserved for 12 years for national security reasons.

Irregularities in 2019

The Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) has found irregularities in the disbursement of 246 million pesos by Sedena in 2019. The control body carried out seven audits to Defense, five by the Santa Lucía air terminal, according to the report of public spending presented on Saturday.

In the tracking carried out by the agency, an anomaly is alerted in the purchase of 49 properties for the aerodrome for a value of 235 million pesos.

The ASF reports that the Army is pending clarification on this acquisition.

Asked about the irregularities, the Sedena spokesperson assured that "all resources are exercised in accordance with the procurement law" and that they are working to respond to the observations made on their activities in 2019. "In all audits there are observations that are subsequently corrected but they are not able to be included in the final report ”of the Audit, he said.

"The administrative areas are verifying the information to establish which observations were corrected after the report was closed."

Regarding Santa Lucia, the report warns that Sedena gave the contracts for the architecture and engineering projects through direct awards without yet having the permits to build.

It also records duplication of invoices in some payments and a "probable damage or loss to the Public Treasury for an amount of 812,977 pesos" in a transaction in which a currency exchange other than that published by the Bank of Mexico was reported.

The Audit also claims that the military apologize in national security for not revealing data without specifying "how it would violate" the construction.

Another of the audits indicates a probable damage to the public coffers of 9.7 million pesos in the construction of the Peacekeeping Operations Training Center in Mexico, a space to train soldiers in peacekeeping missions.

The work inaugurated in January 2020 by López Obrador adds four possible processes of damage to the public Treasury for surcharges according to the ASF.

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