Necessary, greater support for System by AMLO

Seven years after the publication of reforms to combat corruption in Mexico, experts warned that there is a lack of support and political will on the part of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and various authorities to promote them; In addition, they pointed out that there is a lack of adjustments in laws and to improve the professionalization of public servants who work in anti-corruption areas.

Marco Antonio Fernández, coordinator of the Anti-Corruption and Education program of México Evalúa and professor and researcher at the School of Government of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, explained that during the current six-year term there has been an erosion of the “precarious institutions” that exist in the country for the fight against corruption.

The specialist questioned the decisions that the president has taken such as unifying various areas in institutions in order to generate savings and that, he considered, have affected the fight against corruption.

For his part, Ricardo Alvarado Andalón, a researcher for Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad, pointed out that the head of the federal Executive does not like the National Anti-Corruption System (SNA) because he believes that it comes from agreements between the political forces that governed the country before your arrival.

“That completely underestimates the citizen effort that was made, between 2015 and 2017, to make a constitutional reform of the size that was made for the creation of the SNA,” said the specialist.

He also indicated that the SNA requires political support because, during the final stretch of Enrique Peña Nieto and so far in the six-year term of López Obrador, it has not existed.

He recalled that a reform initiative that sought to eliminate the Executive Secretariat of the SNA, which is the operating body of the same system, was even leaked.

There is no discussion about what we should do (in the SNA) and that is because there is no political support; because there is no support for the decisions that this body is going to make, ”he said.

He pointed out that, without political support, no matter how well the Executive Secretariat or the System’s Citizen Participation Committee does its job, there will be no repercussions on the political system, it will not be possible to investigate in the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the comptrollers of the Public Function. Essentially, without support, you cannot “feed” the anti-corruption process.

harmonization of laws

Ricardo Alvarado explained that there are 16 laws at the federal level, in anti-corruption matters, that require legal adjustments to be able to fit perfectly with the powers provided for in the first secondary laws for the Coordinating Committee but that, until now, have not been carried out. none.

Alvarado Andalón criticized that, throughout these four years in office, the Executive has concentrated anti-corruption functions in the Ministry of Public Administration.

While, Marco Fernández indicated that the measures to prevent, investigate and punish acts of corruption continue to be weak because the national career service is precarious; In addition, the President of the Republic has reiterated, on different occasions, that he does not believe in the professionalization of the public service.

Earrings of the fight against the scourge

There are still 16 laws to be harmonized at the federal level on anti-corruption matters.

Mexico City, Tamaulipas and Nuevo León do not currently have a final proposal for State Anti-Corruption Policies.

Baja California, Chihuahua and Morelos are still in the final stretch to endorse their State Anti-Corruption Policy, awaiting feedback from the SNA Executive Secretariat.

As of December 15, 10 states with anti-bribery policies did not yet have an implementation program.

politica@eleconomista.mx