In 2021, the federal government advanced in the disappearance of 60 of the 253 trusts planned to disappear after the decrees of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador published in 2020. For this reason, the Ministry of Finance obtained 34 billion pesos, although the total bag is 509 billion pesos.
This means that two years after the extinction decrees, the Public Treasury has managed to recover 6% of the existing resources in the trusts, according to the 2021 Public Account report.
According to a calculation made by Fundar, 70% of the amount recovered corresponds only to three trusts: the Rural Finance Fund, with 11 billion pesos; the Fund for the Development of Mining Production Zones, with 7 billion pesos, and the Fund for the Strengthening of Port Infrastructure, with 6 billion pesos.
This week, @Hacienda_Mexico delivered to @Mx_Diputados the 2021 Public Account. We analyze the status of #Fideicomisos to date. We opened the thread with the findings. pic.twitter.com/JldMq6YNiL
— Found (@FundarMexico) May 5, 2022
In April and November 2020, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed decrees to disappear the existing trusts, which financed research, sports, cinema, infrastructure, among other issues, so that the money was integrated into the Treasury of the Federation and be able to dispose of it in other areas.
Of the 253 trusts, only 60 reported the recovery of resources totaling 34,986 million pesos, but of the rest, the Treasury does not report the amounts.
Sara Salvatierra, a researcher at Fundar, explains that the lack of reports could be due to the fact that they have not yet determined the figures because “the disappearance process was not simple”, because being resources that did not depend on budget for each fiscal year, the trusts could acquire multi-year commitments, or in other cases, they had more debts than liquid resources.
In the 2021 Public Account report made by the Treasury, only 31 trusts appear with extinction of 100%. Another 12 have an advance of between 80 and 98%, while seven register between 50 and 76% and 8, present progress of between 1 and 38%.
The largest number of trusts to be extinguished are in the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), led by María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, with 71, of which 20 are in operation and 51 in the process of extinction.
One of them is the Conacyt-Ministry of Energy Sector Fund, which registers a 100% advance in extinction, but which does not report the amount obtained or to be recovered in the Public Account report.
This is the trust that had a purse of 13,189 million pesos and was focused on promoting actions for the energy transition, including the formation of human capital, as is the case of master’s and doctoral students in foreign universities and who had delays in the payment of their scholarships.
Another affectation during the extinction process occurred in the financing of research projects.
In November 2018, the Hydrocarbons Fund of the Ministry of Energy-Conacyt selected 29 research projects to finance them with 2,751 million pesos, but the National Council of Science and Technology has not given them the resources.
The lack of delivery has been due to bureaucratic delays of the Conacyt, since the officials have extended the signing of the Resource Allocation Agreements (CAR) for 2 years and 9 months, although they did not have to spend more than six months to finalize them.
Conacyt trusts represent 28.1% of the total to be extinguished, followed by the SHCP, with 26.9%; the Ministry of Culture, with 5.5%; the Ministry of Education
Public and Tourism, with 4.3%; and the remaining 30.8% correspond to the rest of the branches.
The Ministry of Finance has 68 trusts, including the Trust to Administer the Consideration of Article 16 of the Customs Law;
1936 National Infrastructure Fund Trust; Pension Plan for Retirees of BANOBRAS; Income Stabilization Fund of the Federal Entities (FEIEF); Risk Sharing Fund 11480; Pension Trust, of the Guarantee and Promotion Fund for Agriculture, Livestock and Poultry; and NAFIN Pension Fund and Seniority Premiums.
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