Arturo Sanchez Jimenez
The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, July 22, 2024, p. 13
For the fifth consecutive year, the financial statements of Mexican Food Security (Segalmex) did not receive a clean opinion from the external firm that reviewed them.
And the independent law firm Mazars, appointed to audit the financial statements for 2023, issued an opinion with reservations
regarding the accounts of Segalmex due to inconsistencies in the records and insufficient internal control at the state-owned company, according to a report submitted to the Treasury Department and obtained by this newspaper through the National Transparency Platform.
In the document, the office indicates that it refused to issue a verdict on the 2022 financial statements, which it also reviewed, and explained that it was unable to obtain audit evidence that provides a sufficient and appropriate basis for expressing an opinion on financial statements
and observed weaknesses in the internal control of the state-owned company.
It should be noted that Segalmex’s financial statements for 2019, 2020 and 2021, its first three years of operation, did not receive a favorable opinion either, when an alleged embezzlement estimated at around 10 billion pesos by the authorities was carried out, which is still being investigated.
The auditing firms that reviewed Segalmex’s financial situation in those years also refused to issue an opinion given the uncertainty that the figures showed.
As this newspaper published in 2022, the Salles Sainz Grant Thornton firm refused to give its opinion on the financial statements for 2020 and 2021 because it concluded that it did not have the certainty that during the course of the audit, information has been revealed to us regarding possible fraud, allegations or suspicions of fraud, where employees, former employees and officials who perform significant functions in internal control could presumably be involved, which could have caused breaches that may have a material effect on the financial statements of the entity
.
In its opinion for 2023, Mazars noted that the basis for its qualified opinion is that during that year, in which Leonel Cota Montaño was in charge of Segalmex, the state-owned company did not maintain sufficient internal control over the accounting records relating to the balances and operations for the sale of grains to its related party Diconsa
.
A qualified opinion is issued when the audited entity has not consistently used the accounting standards applicable to it or when the review does not provide sufficient evidence to issue a fair opinion.
In this regard, Mazars added in the document dated March 14 that the significant
deficiencies that Segalmex had in the control of its inventories until 2022 affected subsequent records, so We were unable to perform audit procedures that we considered necessary in the circumstances and, consequently,
make sure of the reasonableness
from the figures presented by the company.
“Except for the potential effects of the matters described in the ‘Basis for Qualified Opinion’ section of our report, Segalmex’s financial statements and reports are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the financial reporting provisions,” the firm concluded.
