Arturo Sanchez Jimenez
Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday January 22, 2023, p. 8
Next Wednesday the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) will complete 300 days working with the minimum number of commissioners required by law to function, since it only has five of the seven commissioners that make up its plenary session – the institution’s governing body – and the date is approaching when one more, Commissioner Francisco Javier Acuña, will conclude his term, which could leave this autonomous body inoperative for the first time in its history.
Faced with this situation, the commissioners of the institute have announced that they are studying a legal strategy that would allow them to continue working even with four commissioners and that they are preparing a proposal for legal reform to prevent the lack of appointment of its members from paralyzing the institution.
Since Óscar Guerra and Rosendoevgueni Monterrey concluded their terms as INAI commissioners in March 2022, the institute’s plenary session has only five members: president commissioner Blanca Lilia Ibarra, commissioners Norma Julieta del Río and Josefina Román, as well as commissioners Acuna and Adrian Alcala.
Although at the time the Senate – the body responsible for the appointment of INAI commissioners – issued a call for the renewal of vacancies and had a list of applicants and mechanisms to evaluate them, after 10 months those positions remain empty, despite that by constitutional mandate, the Plenary INAI must have seven commissioners and a minimum of five to carry out their tasks, which according to the law consist of monitor compliance with constitutional and legal provisions on transparency, access to information and protection of personal data, as well as ensure that the principles of certainty, legality, independence, impartiality, effectiveness, objectivity, professionalism, transparency and maximum publicity guide all the activities of the institute
.
The lack of two members already causes difficulties in the operation, because as the law indicates that a minimum of five is required to validate the sessions, if one of the commissioners falls ill, it is difficult for a session to be held.
Acuña Llamas ends her term on March 31. According to the norm, at least 60 days before the procedure to designate his relief should begin.
Although the pending appointments must be made in March, the procedure takes several weeks because it includes the review of documents, interviews and evaluations of a broad list of candidates, as well as agreements between different parliamentary factions.
