During her morning conference on Tuesday, October 14, the president was questioned about requesting international economic support from the Trust Fund for Disaster Relief and Containment, as well as from the UN Central Fund to address the national emergency due to the season’s rains.
However, Claudia Sheinbaum reported that this year, the country has a budget of 19,000 million pesos to respond to emergencies, of which nearly 3,000 million pesos have been used.
“There are sufficient resources to be able to deal with the emergency,” he assured.
In his speech, he clarified that the resources are available expeditiously, unlike Fonden, which had bureaucratic barriers to request them.
“What is the difference with the Fonden? The Fonden had excessive bureaucratic rules to be able to use the resources, in this case not. The use of the resources is transparent, yes, without corruption.”
What was the Fonden?
The Natural Disasters Fund (Fonden) was a budgetary mechanism to support the rehabilitation of federal and state infrastructure that was affected by natural disasters, such as cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes or any natural phenomenon.
The fund was created during the six-year term of Ernesto Zedillo, in 1996, within Branch 23 of the Federation’s Expenditure Budget, but it became operational three years later, in 1999, when the first Operating Rules were issued. It was part of the National Civil Protection System.
Originally, Fonden was intended to carry out public infrastructure rehabilitation activities at the levels of government (federal, state and municipal), housing for the low-income population and some elements of the environment such as jungles, protected natural areas, rivers and lagoons.
The resources were obtained through the Federation Expenditure Budget, and so that the states could receive part of them for their use, the Ministry of the Interior had to activate a declaration of emergency or natural disaster.
That is, the federal government was in charge of delivering resources according to the severity of the population and infrastructure. To determine it, a damage census was carried out by a technical evaluation committee, made up of representatives of the Interior and the federal and state governments.
It did not deliver cash to the affected states, but rather purchased the necessary supplies and instructed suppliers to deliver them. In addition, support was limited, since Fonden was committed to covering the costs of reconstruction or participating in it with 50%, depending on the infrastructure.
According to the Federal Government, it was also used to compare medicines, water, food, clothing, and cleaning and personal hygiene items to serve the population.
According to the Center for Public Finance Studies (CEFP), the Fonden’s budgetary insufficiency to address emergencies led to a fixed percentage of the Budget being allocated, by annual allocation, added to the existing availability in the corresponding reserves, as a whole they could not be less than an amount equivalent to 0.4% of the programmable expenditure.
In 2010 and 2011, the rules changed. In the Official Gazette of the Federation, parameters and processes were established for access to support, in addition to simplification.
To receive resources, the federal entities had to show the magnitude of the damage, and demonstrate that it exceeded their financial capabilities, and present a request detailing the reconstruction needs and estimated costs.
The municipalities, for their part, had to wait for state agents to present these processes.
Fonden was operated by Banobras, through which resources were channeled and acted as the contracting authority for insurance and instruments.
Why did it disappear?
President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Fonden, in addition to being bureaucratic, also had corrupt practices. “Whoever defends Fonden is like defending corruption,” he said from Mañanera del Pueblo.
This position was shared by his predecessor, former president Andrés López Obrador, who requested the extinction of the fund in 2020, and it was made official in July 2021.
Andrés Manuel had referred to Fonden as “the petty cash” of the government, from which government officials “dispatched” billions of pesos by raising prices in purchases to respond to disasters.
“The Fonden was a bottomless barrel, in each emergency 1,000; 2,000; 3,000; 5,000 million pesos were stolen,” he criticized.
Fonden was one of the 109 funds and trusts that disappeared, with the purpose of using resources to address the Covid 19 pandemic, and an “austerity” policy between 2019 and 2024.
In its place, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Assistance disseminated guidelines of the “Program for Emergency Response to Natural Threats”, with which a new Responsible Unit was created, the National Coordination of Civil Protection.
With information from Lidia Arista and Brenda Yañez.
