AMLO will suggest austerity plan to the INE to remedy extravagances

Andrea Becerril and Laura Poy

La Jornada newspaper
Saturday, January 8, 2022, p. 3

The federal government will present to the Federal Electoral Institute (INE) an austerity proposal in its spending, so that it can carry out the consultation to revoke the mandate, on April 10, with the budget assigned to it, reported the President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

It will be given to the INE advisers the remedy and the cloth and if there is a will, from there there will be enough resources to cover the expenses of establishing polling stations throughout the national territory, so that citizens participate in that citizen consultation mechanism, he added.

In his morning conference, he specified that a review of the budget that the INE exercises is being carried out, based on the Republican Austerity Law, because we have information that there are many superfluous expenses, there are extravagances, starting with salaries received by the directors, who violate the constitutional provision that no public servant will have income greater than that of the President of the Republic.

The federal Executive referred to this issue, from a question in which it was pointed out that the INE spends 1,228 million pesos on the rent of buildings and automobiles. López Obrador said then that this exhaustive review of how the INE spends the budgetary resources assigned to it was commissioned.

I am asking you to see if you have insurance for major medical expenses, which we eliminated, as part of the austerityIt also looks at, he said, how many advisers the counselors have and how much they earn and the contracts they have signed for credentialing, for example, and who their providers are.

President López Obrador clarified that it is not a binding proposal, nor to impose anything, but We do want to review, in accordance with the Republican Austerity Law, how the INE is exercising the budget.

As an example, he stated that the review of contracts for maintenance of works that were made in the past six-year term and that were exceeded will allow 3 billion pesos to be channeled during the next three years to build roads in 21 municipalities of the Mountain of Guerrero.

In a country with so much poverty, and so much inequality and poverty, there cannot be excessive wages. It may be legal, but it is immoral for a counselor to earn 150 or 160 thousand pesos, He said. It will also review how much the gift of the president of the INE was, to compare it with what he himself received.

It is not a question, he clarified, of defining who works more, but of following the maxim of Benito Juárez, that the civil servant must learn to live in the just mediocrity.

He trusted that within a week that austerity plan that he will propose to the INE will be ready, so that it can carry out the consultation to revoke the mandate.

He took the opportunity, he said, to talk about the issue, because perhaps later he will not be able to do so and invited all Mexicans to participate in that consultation on April 10, so that it becomes a reality that the people can put and remove their rulers.

In his conference, he also specified that this year the three pending reforms will be promoted, the electricity one, which has already been presented, the one referring to the National Guard and the electoral one. The latter, to reduce the cost of the elections, which is 20 billion pesos, and guarantee the impartiality of the INE, since the directors do not act as arbitrators, as judges, but rather take sides against us, when they should be impartial.

President López Obrador added that the function of the INE advisers is to enforce participatory democracy, guarantee equal conditions, clean and free elections, without fraud, But it turns out that they sided, not from now, they have been for a long time. Because, we need that electoral reform.

On the other hand, the federal Executive also reported that on Sunday, January 16, he will go to Tabasco to participate in a tribute for the 125th anniversary of the birth of the poet and politician Carlos Pellicer, who He was my teacher, but also, the greatest of all Tabasqueños, the best of all Tabasqueños.

He recalled that Pellicer, in addition to being a great poet, was a museologist, and also participated as a brigadista along with other intellectuals in the defense of the Republic in Spain. He was a Basque member of the youth team and always in favor of just causes. He was president of the Nicaraguan defense committee against the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza.