The remuneration of public servants that, at the time of the decree’s entry into force, is higher than that established for the president, “must be adjusted to the provisions of Sections I and II of Article 127 of the Constitution within the expenditure budgets corresponding to the fiscal year following its entry into force, regardless of the date on which they began exercising their positions,” was established in that transitional provision.
The amendments to six constitutional articles on austerity and public servants’ salaries are part of the package of 20 initiatives presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on February 5, and received the support of the opposition parties National Action Party (PAN), Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Citizen Movement (MC), in addition to the votes of Morena and its allies.
The decision was unanimous in general and 35 in favor and two abstentions, in particular, and was referred to the board of directors, so it was ready only to proceed to the vote in the plenary chamber.
Thus, the details of what the presidential “full remuneration” consists of and how much it amounts to were established for the first time: “it will include all payments in cash or in kind and may not exceed the equivalent of 73.04 times the annual value of the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA).”
It was also established that expenses subject to verification, travel expenses for official activities, security services and, in general, those that are inherent to the development of the position and are carried out in the fulfillment of regulated and authorized official functions, including those inherent to the operation of residences, are not part of the remuneration.
During the analysis of the opinion, only one reform was approved, proposed by Morena through the voice of deputy Ismael Brito to indicate that there are not 73 UMAS but “73.04 times the UMA” and that services “that are not provided for” in the general provision, collective contract or collective work contracts cannot be contracted.
How much does AMLO earn?
The details of what and how much the presidential “full remuneration” will be were established for the first time – and were only pending a vote in the plenary session: “it will include all payments in cash or in kind and may not exceed the equivalent of 73.04 times the annual value of the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA).”
It was also established that expenses subject to verification, travel expenses for official activities, security services and, in general, those that are inherent to the development of the position and are carried out in the fulfillment of regulated and authorized official functions, including those inherent to the operation of residences, are not part of the remuneration.
The debate
In the discussion, all parties agreed on the convenience of austerity. However, the PAN members were critical, pointing out, as did deputy Santiago Torreblanca, that in order to protect the pesos, the millions are neglected, since there is no way to be austere when salaries are cut but huge sums are spent on mega-projects.
PAN member Jorge Triana said that in reality President López Obrador does not receive the 136,739 pesos stated in the 2024 Expenditure Budget, but rather in a “conservative scenario half a million pesos per month,” including benefits such as the Social Security Contribution Fund, the Solidarity Savings Fund, vacation bonus, Christmas bonus, guaranteed gratuity and compensation, biweekly bonus, food assistance, institutional life insurance, and collective retirement insurance.
This should be added to “the allocation of public infrastructure used to protect the president” such as security personnel, presidential aides, vehicles, housing, food, and clothing, he said.
The PAN member emphasized that not even those close to Morena comply with austerity and mentioned the case of the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Arturo Zaldívar, who resigned to support Morena and fought to maintain all the privileges he had while he held that position although he resigned early and did not complete the 15 years to be able to retire with full benefits.
Now Zaldívar was considered to be an official of the administration of the virtual president Claudia Sheinbaum, for which Triana lashed out: “it was mentioned that there were members of the SCJN who refused to adjust their remunerations so that they would be below the President and I agree and I see that as very bad and I will give you an example, the former minister Zaldívar currently earns 192 thousand pesos per month for doing absolutely nothing.
“He is a deserting minister who did not finish his term, but rather left suddenly and abruptly. Well, he was not entitled to this remuneration and he litigated it: he requested, and here is the document, two armored trucks for the year. He requested that there be five employees paid with people’s taxes, six bodyguards paid with people’s taxes and he even wanted to take the computers. Well, he didn’t want to take the toilets because he couldn’t dismantle them, but he was going for everything.”
In addition to such cases, he added unnecessary expenses contrary to austerity, such as creating a 350 million peso Office of the President of the Republic for baseball, so that “we have to be fair, austerity has to be for everyone. We want an austere government. We want a government that makes functional cuts with a scalpel and not with an axe.”
