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| Juan Manuel Portal, Mexico's Auditor General, with legislator José Luis Muñoz, during the delivery of findings of the audit of Public Accounts for 2011 in the Chamber of Deputies Notimex Photo |
The Auditor General of the Federation (ASF) warned that corruption and impunity in the country will not end only through the auditing of public expenditures, nor is it simply a matter of punishing those individually responsible for diversion of resources, because there exists
"a system of incentives created by legal inconsistencies and structural problems that encourage the repetition of irregularities."As the beginning of congressional meetings to review the Public Accounts of 2011, the head of the ASF, Juan Manuel Portal, said that while the regulatory agency has an obligation to promote administrative responsibility and present complaints to the Attorney General, these means are not sufficient to counter corruption in the performance of the Expenditure Budget.
Before deputies of the Vigilance Committee, the auditor stated that failure to punish those responsible for the nation's ills is not attributable to the ASF.
"We are aware that there is a constant concern about the limited impact of the audit. In our view, there continue to be questions which unduly seek to establish a relationship between high levels of corruption in the country and our results," he said.Juan Manuel Portal presented an overview of the results of the audit in the area of Government Relations, Treasury, Education and Social Development, in the fifth year of the administration of Felipe Calderón.
He said that during that period basic [elementary and middle school] education showed deficiencies that affected the quality of teaching, and he considered that the low participation of teachers in their ongoing training and updating requires the implementation of a professional service with increased expenditure, so that promotion, salary and retention are based on the evaluation of performance.
Moreover, in his opinion, the Congress should pass a tax reform that includes a tax scheme that simplifies raising non-oil tax revenues, because tax revenues were lower than net expenditures, and the gap was offset with oil revenue. This also creates a budget deficit that is covered by public debt.
Juan Manuel Portal said that another area that puts pressure on public finances is the debt of the states, which between 2006 and 2011 increased from 48.7 to 79.1 percent as a share of federal contributions to the states. Regarding this point, the auditor stated that the National Banking and Securities Commission should regulate the financing granted by banks to state governments and conform to sound banking practices, regardless of the collateral of federal contributions.
... In the area of Social Development, he said that programs to combat poverty have not worked because their focus is exclusively one of welfare. The mechanisms for delivery of subsidies to people are dispersed, and there is a laxness in supervision and control instruments that has led to their poor use or benefiting uses other than those strictly having to do with fighting poverty.
... He also referred to one of the biggest corruption scandals in the government of Felipe Calderon, the construction of the Stele of Light. The original cost estimate was 300 million pesos [US$24,700,000], but the actual cost was one billion, 400 million pesos [US$115,286,000].
The head of the FSA explained that because of the complexity of the case and because it was not a minor issue, the auditing of this work included reviewing three public accounts and that the results were based on rigorous technical analysis and documentary evidence. Spanish original