Poor handling and possible diversions of federal departures that year after year are sent to states are still on the rise. New irregularities discovered in the revisions that the Federation’s Higher Audit (ASF) conducted this 2020 raised to 403 billion 655 thousand pesos the amount of resources whose legal use and destination is unclear.
Veracruz and Michoacán are the states where the greatest number of irregularities were recorded so far this century: in these two entities have disappeared, on average, 1 in 4 pesos sent through federal funds and subsidies. But it is Mexico City, already with Claudia Sheinbaum at the helm, the entity with the highest amount of resources under suspicion in 2019.
This is shown by data from the ASF Public Audit Consultation System, updated with records of the results of more than 400 audits for the 2019 Public Account that were conducted that year.
It follows from these reviews that in 2019 there were poor handling of items subsidies and federal funds sent to the states amounting to 23 billion pesos. This is a partial outcome as last year’s public account review is not yet complete.
The increase in the amounts observed by auditors in the last year and a half is considerable when you take into account that by mid-2018 the figure was 302 billion pesos, almost 100 billion pesos less.
These amounts may vary as state governments have the potential to clarify the fate of the resources, or, where appropriate, return them.
However, when a certain amount of time has elapsed or when irregularities are serious, the Audit considers that the money is lost and proceeds with the formulation of administrative and even criminal proceedings for the possible commission of crimes.
So far, from 2012 to 2019, the Audit has identified 11,883 alleged frauds committed in the grievance of the era by state or municipal officials, and has proceeded with the filing of 353 complaints of facts with the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (formerly PGR). Such complaints are against officials or former officials who are responsible.
Red spotlights in 2019: Health Money and Popular Insurance
Of the 23,332 million pesos sent to the states in 2019 that could have been diverted and whose destination is unclear, there are 12 billion pesos that are concentrated in only three entities: Mexico City, Veracruz and Chiapas.
These are states with governors emanating from the same party (Morena) that only began their administrations at the end of 2018; all three entities have irregularities in health and popular insurance funds.
The country’s capital is the entity with the highest amount observed by the ASF with 7 thousand 516 million pesos, which alone is 32% of the total money mis handlered in 2019.
Of the amount observed with irregularities in the capital there are 4 thousand 592 million pesos that were from the Health Services Contribution Fund (FASSA), and that is 100% of the money that the capital received from that fund.
What the auditors reported in audit results report number 621-DS-GF is that there is no certainty that all of the fund’s money has been legally exercised, because the capital government did not provide certified copies, transfers or statements related to these resources. All he delivered were reports that were incomplete.
“The Government of Mexico City did not prove the application of resources for 4 billion pesos in the FASSA objectives, as well as its financial performance transferred by 1 billion pesos, through accounting records and policies with its supporting and supporting documentation of expenditure,” the auditors said.
In addition, another 2,695 million pesos transferred to Mexico City are added through an agreement with the Secretariat of Federal Health that has also not been legally proven to have been allocated. The results report of audit number 631-DS-GF concludes, as in the previous case, that the capital government did not provide complete and duly certified documents proving for what this money was earmarked for.
Veracruz, under the administration of Governor Cuitláhuac García, is the second entity with the highest amount of federal resources detected with irregularities corresponding to the 2019 financial year, with a total of 2 thousand 413 million pesos observed by the auditors.
Of this total, 1.963 million pesos correspond to health resources that, as in the case of the country’s capital, were transferred to Veracruz following a coordination agreement with the Federal SSA to cover Popular Insurance. What the auditors found is that in Garcia’s government he did not provide enough information to prove that that money was exercised and what his fate was. Resources weren’t returned either.
In the case of Chiapas, the ASF identified irregular handling and possible diversion of 2 billion pesos, of which more than half correspond to the FASSA. The 556-DS-DF audit results report identified at least six irregularities in the management of that fund that represent a possible break in more than 1 billion pesos in governor Rutilio Escandón’s administration.
These anomalies include, for example, the acquisition of medicines that are not known to have actually been delivered, or the possible recruitment of “ghost” staff, i.e. public servants hired at different health centres that are not known to have actually worked on the site.
Veracruz, Michoacán and Edomex lead diversions
In the historical register of irregularities, there are three entities that alone concentrate 35% of the total amount of 402 billion pesos possibly diverted states; it is Veracruz, Michoacán and The State of Mexico, where practically 1 in 3 pesos that have been “lost” in the last 18 years are located.
Veracruz is, by a wide margin, the entity where the greatest amount of federal resources has disappeared. Updated ASF data account for this amount at 66 billion pesos, equivalent to 16% of the total national amount.
The greatest amount of money poorly managed is concentrated in the passage from 2012 to 2016 corresponding to the period of government of Javier Duarte, currently imprisoned for money laundering and criminal association, although the auditors have also identified that there are 2 billion mis handlers in 2019, which corresponds to the current governor Cuitláhuac García.
For the deviations identified in Veracruz, the Audit has filed 86 criminal complaints with the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic, which amount to almost 25% of all complaints filed at the national level for irregularities in the entities.
It should be noted that in 43 of the complaints filed by the ill-driving in Veracruz amounting to 55 billion diverted was established as responsible to the extesorero of the entity Tarek Abdalá; however, the former priista man was “forgiven” without returning the money with a criterion of opportunity in exchange for him testifying against Duarte. Today Abdullah is fugitive from justice.
The second entity with the highest number of mishanding identified by the ASF is Michoacán with a total of 39 thousand 674 million pesos observed. In this entity, the largest anomalies have been reported in the administrations of former governor Salvador Jara and current Governor Silvano Aureoles. The ASF has already filed 30 criminal complaints for these events.
Then the state of Mexico is located where the updated audit data yield 34 thousand 660 million pesos that must be clarified or returned. Here most observations are concentrated in the last year of government of Eruviel Avila (2016) and the first two years of the current governor Alfredo del Mazo.
Despite the high amount observed in the Mexiquense entity, the Audit has filed only eight complaints with the FGR for this situation.
Jalisco is the third largest criminal complaint to the FGR for possible diversions with 28 in total. There the amount of resources observed by the ASF amounts to 19 thousand 531 million pesos, which is the fifth highest amount in the country only behind the three states already mentioned and Chihuahua where 21 billion pesos have been reported.
On the subject of Chihuahua irregularities are concentrated between 2016 and 2017, which corresponds to the final stretch of the government of César Duarte who is currently subject to an extradition process in the United States. Against this entity, the ASF has filed 18 complaints with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.
At the other end, that of entities with the smallest amounts of resources observed and complaints filed highlight Aguascalientes with 3 thousand 567 million pesos under suspicion since 2002, without this having given rise to any complaint yet; and Querétaro with only 407 million observed, albeit with 6 criminal complaints filed.
In Durango, the observed resources reach only 2,525 million with two criminal complaints, and Tlaxcala with 2 billion pesos missing, albeit already with 12 complaints filed.
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#YoSoyAnimalEl position Grows black hole in resources sent to states; there are 403 thousand mdp that do not appear first appeared in Political Animal.
