Mayors in Coahuila seek re-election despite the irregular management of resources

SALTILLO, Coah (Process).- In Coahuila, municipal presidents seeking re-election committed irregularities in the management of public resources that were destined for works, services, security and even the administrative operation of the city councils, according to the report of the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) on the Public Accounts 2022, which was the first year of the mayors’ government.

The PRI seeks re-election in 17 of 25 municipal presidencies, among them that of Torreón, Román Alberto Cepeda González. The most serious observations by the ASF were found in his government. In the previous election for the municipal presidencies, Cepeda was in alliance with the PRD and in this year’s Democratic Unity of Coahuila (UDC) joined.

In the case of Morena, they are seeking re-election in two city councils: Frontera and Múzquiz. Ciudad Acuña, whose mayor won with the acronym of that party, today goes for the Citizen Alliance for Security, of the PRI, PRD and UDC. In the PAN only one of the four municipal presidents seeks to repeat.

In the municipality of Torreón, the federal supervisory body detected that the PRI municipal president made payments for unfinished works and even diverted resources to the company PASA, concessionaire of the cleaning service, for the “manual sweeping” in the municipal offices. The irregularities observed amount to just over 193.9 million pesos.

The document was made public last February and it establishes that the municipality of Torreón authorized payments with resources from the Contribution Fund for the Municipal Social Infrastructure and the Territorial Demarcations of the Federal District (FAISM), for “concepts that were not found.” in operation”, for an amount of one million 658 thousand pesos, and for volumes of public works not executed for an amount of 574 thousand pesos, which implies “that they did not provide the programmed benefits to the target population of the fund.”

This was the result of the physical inspection of five works by the supervisory body, among which are the rehabilitation of the sanitary drainage in the Morelos neighborhood, as well as the rehabilitation of the water network in the Tercero de Cobián and José R neighborhoods. . Mijares, in addition to work in public parks in popular neighborhoods such as La Merced II and Ex Hacienda la Perla.

Although the municipal authority provided documentation to prove the expense, the ASF maintained the observation because the local government “did not clarify or justify the reasons why the payments for the concepts and unexecuted volumes of the contracts were authorized and made”; For this reason, it determined the promotion of a sanction of administrative responsibility.

In an interview with Proceso, Cepeda González assured that he has healthy finances and that the observations are part of a normal process that is attended to. However, when asked about the revised work for the unexecuted amounts, he became upset. “Who sent you?” He asked twice before his press manager abruptly cut off the interview, attacking the reporter.

The Torreón mayor also has clarification requests for 57.9 million pesos for having considered the federal shares as his own income.

The amount observed is 98% of the resource that the Cepeda González government received and with which it acquired 40 vehicles for the Public Security Directorate and carried out works for the sectoral drinking water management program. The municipal government tried to justify the classification of the origin of the resource, but did not provide the necessary accounting records, so an administrative liability sanction was promoted.

Regarding federalized spending that includes the resources of various funds, the municipality is in second place with the largest amount of money to be verified, with 133.8 million pesos, after Juárez, Chihuahua, whose observations amount to 151 million and are related with non-compliance with regulations regarding acquisitions, leases and services. The Lagunero city council is ranked third nationally regarding this irregularity.

In this area, the ASF found improper payments to the company Concesionaria y Alumbrado de Torreón, for 89 million 556 thousand pesos, of which 76.4 million correspond to the Municipal Strengthening Fund, which were intended to be justified, but the supervisory body considered that “not “It meets the necessary characteristics of sufficiency, competence and relevance for the relief of observations.”

There is also damage or harm to the federal public treasury due to the “inappropriate or excessive” payment of 56.1 million pesos that were made to the cleaning service concessionaire company, PASA. These are several concepts, but one of them corresponds to the “manual sweeping” of Municipal Public Services offices, for which 305 thousand pesos were spent. The total is 133.8 million.

To address the observations in this area, the city council announced that it would deliver all the information and documentation that supports the contract with the concessionaire. But in October 2023 he presented other documents, which generated “legal uncertainty” about them, and, therefore, the city council was notified that “the refusal to deliver information to the Superior Audit of the Federation, as well as the acts of simulation that are presented to hinder and hinder the inspection activity, will be sanctioned.”

A contract for the purchase of fuel was also audited and it was found that it was paid for product greater than the capacity of the units that received it and diesel or gasoline was supplied to units that were not authorized.

“In conclusion, the municipality of Torreón did not carry out an efficient or transparent exercise in compliance with the legislation and administrative regulations applicable to acquisition, leasing and service procedures, for contracts and agreements financed with resources from federalized spending,” states the document.

Other municipalities under the microscope

The review of the public account of Monclova did not yield observations, but there was a recommendation to the mayor, Mario Alberto Dávila Delgado, to whom the supervisory body points out that there are omissions to incorporate into the system the strategies and control mechanisms developed for better management. and security in meeting objectives and managing resources.

In the case of the municipality of Frontera, governed by Roberto Piña Amaya, from Morena, the ASF issued a recommendation and two sheets of observations for the damage to the public treasury amounting to 2.3 million pesos.

The observations are related to irregularities in the management of resources from the Contribution Fund for the Strengthening of Municipalities and Territorial Demarcations of the Federal District (Fortamun) and focused on the contract ADQ-CLIMP-001-2022, for which They paid five million 287 thousand pesos for the purchase of two used trucks for the municipal cleaning department. The ASF considers that there is damage to the federal public treasury of more than one million 371 thousand 800 pesos due to the extra price paid for these units, whose invoice does not indicate that they would not be new.

The Superior Audit of the Federation detailed that said contract was made on March 10, 2021; That is, 11 months before the council session where the acquisition of the two semi-new units was approved, and in the inspection of said assets it was detected that they had the logos of the municipality when the appraisal was carried out, which means that it was made after purchase.

Another irregularity is that the appraisal reflected amounts lower than what was paid. Due to these irregularities, two administrative liability procedures were also opened.

The supervisory body also specified that a public tender was not held for the acquisition of said vehicles, as established by the regulations for the amount.

Another irregularity detected in said contract is that the city council acquired financing for almost one million pesos with the company from which it bought the trucks, but the purpose, characteristics, or calculation mechanics were not specified, nor if said amount It was originated by the granting of some credit in favor of the municipality.

In the audit process, only 123,290 pesos were recovered, so more than 2.3 million pesos are pending clarification.

However, Piña Amaya denied having such observations and assured that the truck case is the result of a complaint made by a media outlet to which he did not want to pay for advertising.

“I don’t have any substantive observations, they are all formal and relate to the acquisition of trucks. The Zócalo newspaper filed a complaint against me because I didn’t want to give them money from an agreement they had. I have nothing real or reliable source. There are two things that I am not: I am not a thief nor am I a thief, and I do not surround myself with thieves,” he said, despite the fact that the ASF report is public and the city council informed him of the start of administrative procedures.

The ASF also made observations that the bank account in which the resources from said fund were received was not productive and was not opened for said purpose, as it should have been, since resources from other sources of financing were detected and were not financial returns were generated. For this reason, an action of administrative responsibility was promoted on the part of the municipality as well as the irregularities by reporting a different figure for the expenditure of said fund in the fourth quarter and another at the end of the year.

Irregular contracts

The municipal president of Múzquiz, Tania Flores Guerra, candidate for Morena, requested leave on January 1 of this year as a local deputy, when the current Legislature began, to seek candidacy for the Senate. When she did not obtain it, she returned to the city council, where she now wants to be re-elected.

The audit focused on the review of a construction contract for the construction of a court in the main square of the town of Esperanzas, in which 273 million pesos were invested. Observations were made because during the physical inspection the deterioration in the stands and grass of the sports field was observed, but a guarantee policy was not applied because it was not available to address hidden defects.

During the course of the audit, the documentation was provided and the corresponding administrative procedure was initiated. In this case, the observations were resolved.

Despite this, the mayor did not accept the interview. Her communication team asked to advance the questions that would be asked and when the subject of the observations by the federation’s supervisory body was mentioned, she no longer responded to the messages.

Meanwhile, Emilio Alejandro de Hoyos Montemayor, municipality of Acuña, was nominated for this administration by the coalition of UDC and Morena, but today he is the standard bearer of the local party in the Citizen Alliance for Security (in which the PRI and the PRD), dissatisfied because the cherry party would apply surveys to determine if he or someone else had more preferences.

The Acuña city council reviewed the resource operated through Fortamun, for an amount of five million 435 thousand pesos, with which six 2022 model double cabin trucks were acquired, equipped with a patrol car, turret, siren, tow hook and metal structure. rear with canvas, among other equipment.

Although a national tender was held, the procedure was plagued by irregularities: when the ruling was made, the quote of the rest of the participants was not mentioned, only that of the supplier to whom the contract was awarded. He was not registered in the municipal registry, so he lacked his current certificate of aptitude during this process.

The municipal authority integrated a file for possible administrative responsibilities, since in the minutes of the session to clarify doubts it is established that the wrong bases and annexes were delivered to the participants and no questions were resolved; The session was not rescheduled either.

The process was verified by the director of Public Works and not by the legal representation of the city council or the Security area.

The irregularities continued once the units were delivered, since there is no document that allows verifying that they were received within the period, place and conditions established in the contract, in addition to the fact that resources were paid to the supplier without having delivered the corresponding tax receipt. for validation.

In the physical inspection they found that four of the six vehicles were working and are used by elements of the municipal police, while the remaining two were found under repair in a workshop. The municipality applied the guarantee provided by the supplier.

The mayor did not respond to interview requests made.