Arturo Sánchez Jiménez
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 3, 2024, p. 5
After detecting possible irregularities involving 5,655 million pesos of federal resources exercised by state and municipal governments, the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) warned that rigorous controls are required to be established in the use and monitoring of federalized spending.
In a report included in the second installment of the 2023 Public Account audit, the ASF highlighted that the state and municipal governments remain highly dependent on the resources transferred to them by the Federation, as they represented an average of 83 percent of the income of the entities in that year and more than 90 percent in 10 of them.
Guerrero, whose income comes 96.4 percent from the Federation, Tlaxcala (94.2), Oaxaca (93.6), Morelos (91.7) and Veracruz (91.2) top the list of entities with the greatest financial dependence on federal money.
The entity that collects the most own resources is Mexico City, for which federalized spending represented 51.7 percent of its total income.
Meanwhile, federal transfers represent 71.7% of municipal income, but in the case of the municipalities with the greatest lag, these resources reached more than 95 percent of the local budget.
Federalized spending, which groups together both free-use federal shares and programmable spending for specific purposes, represented 29.4 percent of the Federation’s total net spending, which was 8 billion 162 thousand 986 million pesos. Compared to fiscal year 2022, in 2023 it registered a real increase of 2.9 percent.
Resources tagged for basic needs
In the report, the ASF highlights the importance of these resources, many of which are designated to cover basic needs in education, health, infrastructure, and security of entities and municipalities.
For the audit of the 2023 Public Account, the ASF is scheduled to carry out 1,959 audits of federalized spending carried out by state and municipal governments, a record number. This week the results of 492 of them were provided to the Chamber of Deputies, which add to the 36 that were presented last June by the ASF. The rest will be concluded in February, when the ASF delivers the final report on the audit of the 2023 Public Account.
The possible irregularities in the exercise of federal resources by states and municipalities, detected in the two audit packages delivered so far by the ASF, total 6,193 million pesos, and represent 70 percent of the possible damages to the treasury observed in all audited levels of government.
Among the main irregularities identified in the audit report, the lack of supporting documentation for expenditure stands out, a situation that particularly affects the Contribution Fund for State Social Infrastructure, improper and excessive payments, and unexecuted or low-quality works. and the diversion of resources for purposes not permitted by law.
