Rachel Goodfacehead of the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Secretariat, presented a history of irregularities in the resources of the Natural Disasters Fund (The foundation), in the six-year terms of former presidents Vicente FoxFelipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.
During the morning conference of President Claudia Sheinbaum, Buenrostro highlighted that in the Government of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “much more was done” to address natural disasters, because the help that reached people “was zero.”
“Being a Trust, its use of resources is more opaque, it is beginning to be very opaque because trusts did not have as many rules as they have now.”
“It was born at a time when trusts were completely obscure, it was not published, no information was given and it was not even known exactly how many trusts existed,” he declared, noting that it was created in 1996.
Buenrostro mentioned to the President that from 2000 to 2009 a series of rules were made that made the Fonden system very bureaucratic: “They couldn’t help at all, there were times when it took them up to 120 days to react to the emergency.”
“They take great advantage of the figure to get more and more money. In 2021 the figure of the Fonden will already disappear,” highlighted the Secretary of Anti-Corruption and Good Government.
He explained that, in past Governments, in the shortest period, it would take 42 days to reach approval, contrary to what was achieved in the recent response to the emergency in five States, when the affected population was attended to in 13 days.
“This was completely ineffective, unskillful and also dark,” Buenrostro insisted. He noted that an opinion from the Superior Audit of the Federation in 2017 indicated that Fonden was “ineffective, inefficient, has high costs, is more reactive than preventive, has excess bureaucracy and a lack of coordination, is opaque and has multiple acts of corruption and does not guarantee citizen service.”
He indicated that in Peña Nieto’s PRI government “there was an excess,” contrary to “more moderate” spending since the last six-year term.
He exemplified that during the mandates of Calderón, Fox and Peña “every time there was an event, there was almost always a shortage of at least 500 million pesos.”
During Fox’s time, Buenrostro said, the General Coordinator of Civil Protection was involved in many cases of corruption and overpricing.
He mentioned that, during the Calderón government in January 2011, three months the emergency was declared due to the floods in Veracruzthe state government complained about the paralysis of the The foundation to begin reconstruction works, among other irregularities.
For the Peña Nieto Government, he remembered hurricanes Ingrid and Manuel: “This was pathetic because it was very, very bureaucratic, this six-year term.” He did not mention the name of José María Tapia, who was director of this Fund in this period and later joined the transformation movement.
Regarding López Obrador’s six-year term, Buenrostro said that the support was direct to the population, and that it acted faster: “It was done much faster, with less money and also with direct help to the people.”
The Universal
There are 80 deaths due to the rains
Two weeks after the intense rains and floods in Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí and Veracruz, the number of dead people rose to 80 and 18 were not located.
In the microsite created by the Government of Mexico on the effects of the rains, it is detailed that in Veracruz there are 35 deaths, 22 in Hidalgo, 22 in Puebla and in Querétaro there is one death.
Ariadna Montiel, head of the Welfare Secretariat, reported 119 municipalities intervened after the rains and floods in five States, as well as 92,024 registered homes.
The Secretary of Welfare highlighted 36,358 supports from the first part, which is 20,000 pesos, vouchers for groceries and household goods that will be given in another stage.
Emilia Calleja Alor, general director of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), reported that the restoration of electrical service to 99.82% has been achieved in the affected communities.
He explained that, in Veracruz, Puebla, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro, the electrical service has already been restored to 100%, while in Hidalgo only the service remains to be restored to 466 users. Jesús Esteva, head of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, reported 202 communicated communities, out of 288 that were initially cut off.
CT