This Monday, the Superior Audit Office of the Federation (ASF) will submit to the Chamber of Deputies the first of three revisions to the 2024 Public Accounts, the final year of López Obrador’s six-year term.
The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been unable to demonstrate how it used more than 33 billion pesos during the first five years of his six-year term, and it still has another 24 billion pesos pending return or clarification from that same period, that is, from 2019 to 2023. Therefore, it is expected that with this new package, the figures will increase.
According to a review conducted by MILENIO, based on information from the ASF’s Public Audit System, as of Friday, there were 994 audit files on federal government agencies from 2019 to 2023, involving a total of 33 billion 144 million 898 thousand pesos, which were not resolved and are considered a loss to the federal treasury.
These files were forwarded to the ASF’s General Investigation Directorate, either to initiate liability proceedings and send them to internal oversight bodies or even to the Federal Administrative Court of Justice for sanctions, or to archive them.
Meanwhile, another 1,121 audit files on federal government agencies from the same period remained open, in the follow-up phase, amounting to 24 billion 818 million 841 pesos pending return or clarification.
In which agencies is there alleged patrimonial damage?
Mexican Food Security (Segalmex), created by López Obrador and headed by Ignacio Ovalle and Leonel Cota, accounts for 6 billion 654 million 510 thousand pesos.
Next in line is the Ministry of Welfare, headed by María Luisa Albores, Javier May, and Ariadna Montiel during those five years. It has accumulated 3.994 billion 377 thousand pesos in unsettled resources before the supervisory authority, equivalent to 12 percent of the unresolved resources.
The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) corporation, headed by Manuel Bartlett during the previous six-year term, ranks third among entities with unsettled resources, with 3.767 billion 747 thousand pesos from the first five years of the six-year term.
For its part, the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur), which was in charge of starting construction of the Mayan Train, is the federal entity with the largest amount of alleged property damage, but which still needs to be repaid or cleared, with 3.14 billion 876 million pesos, equivalent to 12.65 percent of the more than 24 billion pesos outstanding.
Segalmex follows with 2.834 billion pesos to be repaid, and Pemex Exploration and Production with 2.434 billion pesos.
New Audits
The 2024 audit program, the first reports of which will begin to be published this Monday, includes 2,199 audits of institutions across the country, 28 of which are forensic compliance audits, meaning those where potential corruption crimes have already been detected.
The 2024 forensic audits were carried out on:
National Service of Health, Safety, and Agrifood Quality (Senasica)
Federal Roads and Bridges (Capufe)
National Institute of Adult Education (INEA)
Federal Commission for the Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris)
Center for Research and Innovation in Information and Communication Technologies (INFOTEC)
Infonavit
Port of Ensenada
In addition, the defunct National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information, and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), the Federal Judicial Council (CJF), the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judicial Branch (TEPJF), and various state institutions and universities.
Of the 2,199 audits in the 2024 Public Accounts, 1,761 correspond to federalized spending in states and municipalities, so the majority of the reports published in this first installment will relate to this sector.
There are 438 audits of the federal public sector, most of which will be published between the second and third installments, that is, in October and February.
Source: milenio
