AMLO government presents sub-exercise of 60% of the 2022 ICT budget

Federal government spending on information and communication technologies (TIC) presented a sub-exercise of 60% with respect to the budget approved for this item in the PEF 2022. The Government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has spent just 12,903 million pesos of the 32,334 million contemplated for this year.

The federal government has yet to exercise almost 20,000 million pesos in technologies by the third quarter of 2022, according to the consultancy specialized in the Select technology market. This is the largest sub-exercise in the ICT budget since 2020, when the consultancy began to carry out the measurement.

In the third quarter of 2020, the federal administration had already used 46% of the budget allocated to the TIC for that year; while for the same period in 2021, the Government of López Obrador had already spent 53% of the budget for software, hardware, IT services, and telecommunications.

Arely Reyes Gaspar, an analyst at Select, expects that a good part of the budgeted spending for 2022 run in the last three months of the year. Although it warns that neither in 2020 nor in 2021, the ICT budget has been fully spent.

services win

Los ICT serviceswhich include the administration of data centers and software development, are the item in which the federal government has spent the most within the ICT budget so far in 2022, with 5,169 million pesos.

They are followed by Telecommunications services, with 4,442 million pesos; the acquisition of devices, with 2,787 million; consumables, such as ink for printing equipment, 454 million pesos, and software, on which barely 51 million pesos have been spent.

There are still 19,431 million pesos to be exercised within the budget oriented to the TIC. The federal government still needs to spend 6,651 million pesos on telecommunications services or 60% of the assigned budget and 5,990 million pesos on equipment or 68% of the assigned budget.

Nor have 5,352 million pesos been spent on ICT services or 51% of the allocated budget; as well as 320 million pesos in consumables or 41% of the assigned budget and 1,119 million pesos in software or 96% of the assigned budget.

cybersecurity

According to Alejandro Vargas, Research Manager at Select, in an average of the most recent 10 years, out of every 100 pesos in the federal budget, barely 41 cents goes to technology, while countries like New Zealand o USA They dedicate up to 2% to this area, which is why the country is burdened with a technological debt.

Vargas sees this debt as one of the causes that caused the vulnerabilities through which institutions such as the Secretariat of National Defense and the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) or Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the National Lottery.

However, to this is added the lack of an Information Technology architecture and strategies that are implemented within the federal public administration in order to guarantee the continuous operation and resilience of the digital services that they provide to citizens. .

“If we add the amounts of this debt in recent years, we are talking about a gigantic technological gap, but the important thing is not only the economic resources but the strategy,” he said.

rodrigo.riquelme@eleconomista.mx

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