Scam in Oaxaca: They deny 40 million pesos kickback; they are not paid

A state construction official tried to extort 66 workers who were owed 130 million pesos for the reconstruction of 258 schools

Sixty-six builders from Oaxaca refused to pay a 40 million peso bribe to a state government official who tried to obtain this sum as a condition for paying them 130 million pesos for reconstruction work in 258 schools damaged by the earthquake of September 7, 2017.

The group of builders reported that Jesús Gandarillas Toledano, administrative director of the Oaxacan Institute for the Construction of Physical Educational Infrastructure (Iocied), demanded 30 percent of the 130 million pesos.

These 130 million pesos were authorized by the federal government and deposited on February 19, 2024 in the Iocied account from the National Institute of Physical Educational Infrastructure (Inifed). On April 9, 2024, the funds were returned to Inifed. In turn, Inifed returned the money to the Treasury of the Federation (Tesofe). The reasons for the return were not revealed by Iocied.

The complaint of the fraud reached the Presidency of the Republic. On May 14, 2024, the group of builders presented a document, of which Excelsior has a copy, in which they describe the events. In response, the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) confirmed to them that the transfer of the 130 million owed was made on February 19.

Jorge Gamiño, representative of the 66 builders, detailed in an interview the work carried out in the reconstruction of the schools and explained that the payment was caught between two imponderables: the external supervision that Iocied had and the disappearance of the Natural Disaster Fund Trust (Fonden), from where the payment was originally to come.

Several construction companies from Oaxaca were hired by the state government during the mandate of Alejandro Murat, after the 2017 earthquake. We rebuilt and repaired damaged schools, fulfilling punctually. In some cases, advances of 30 percent of the contract value were given and the corresponding work was done, presenting progress reports every 30 percent for the estimation of the work and receiving payment.

Iocied had problems with some external supervisions, which froze payments. In 2019, Fonden disappeared and we were informed that we could not collect because the reconstruction money was in Fonden, which no longer existed,” he said.

He mentioned that the reconstruction work in the 258 educational institutions on the Coast, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Valles Centrales and the Mixteca were carried out in a timely manner, even with the companies’ own money, which generated debt in many cases.

In his account of the events to the Presidency of Mexico, Gamiño reported that since 2020 “we have tried to manage the payment of the work carried out, which was interrupted by the disappearance of the Fonden, so we had to wait until the new operating rules of said program were published.”

He added that when the new operating rules were authorized, the builders went to the Iocied to try to meet with the general director, Alejandro López Jarquín, “who never wanted to receive documents or attend to us in person.”

Schools and construction workers in Oaxaca.

At the request of the Iocied officials, the builders again integrated the files, which were delivered and sent to the Inifed, a dependency of the SEP. “When we went back to the offices to check the payment date, we were not received again and we were attended by the accountant Jesús Gandarillas Toledano, administrative director of Iocied, who gave us the runaround without resolving anything.

After a year of knocking on doors in Mexico City – the builders explain in their letter to the presidency – Inifed delivered the resource to Iocied on February 19, 2024. A letter was also sent to Alejandro López Jarquín to inform him that the resource was already in his accounts and that it was urgent that he make the payment to us, dated March 22, 2024.”

Gamiño said that with the corrupt attitude with which the Iocied directors acted, “they made a hole in the finances of the government of Oaxaca, because we are going to have to sue them for breach of contract; we are saying that the state government is going to have to pay those 130 million because of Gandarillas Toledano, plus interest.”

To find out how Gandarillas Toledano tried to bribe the builders, Jorge Gamiño commented that originally “we were approached by a supposed architect who identifies himself as José Luis, who said he was sent by the general director of Iocied, telling us that ‘we had to get even to be able to collect’. We sent him flying.”

After that, Jorge Gamiño said, a commission of the builders “met in the first days of March 2024 with the administrative director of Iocied, Jesús Gandarilla Toledano, in his office in San Felipe del Agua, to see the issue of payments and that was when he asked for that percentage, he asked for it directly; the person who was in charge of the commission of builders did not agree to us giving the bribe and then Gandarillas put obstacles and delays in paying us, until he returned the money to Inifed,” said the representative.

Source: excelsior