Enrique Mendez
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday March 13, 2023, p. 5
From the budget of 8 thousand 45 million pesos authorized for the Chamber of Deputies, the seven parliamentary groups received, from March to August of last year, 861.9 million pesos in subsidies, that is, resources that are delivered according to the weight of each party, and almost 554 million were justified only as other general services
.
Morena was the only bench that did not fully break down its expenses, despite the fact that since February 2021 the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) reported that the chamber did not have the documentation that justified the expense of 1,399 million pesos in subsidies of 2019 and asked him to correct that practice.
Among the expenses for that semester, which were included in a report published in the Parliamentary Gazettethe benches spent 9.2 million on food and utensils, and practically half, 4.1 million, was borne by the National Action (PAN) deputies.
Morena, who has a dining service for her legislators, allocated 2.7 million; the Institutional Revolutionary (PRI), 540 thousand pesos; the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), 87 thousand; the Labor Party (PT) -which also has a dining room, where the service includes its workers-, 669 thousand 300 pesos; Citizen Movement (MC), 392 thousand pesos, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), 649 thousand 905 pesos.
Only two benches reported having a vehicle fleet at their disposal. In the semi-annual report, the PAN reported having 28 vehicles in custody, of which five are vans, which serve the PAN deputies to their hotels and the airport, so as not to pay for taxis. Meanwhile, the PRI has 12 vehicles and two motorcycles.
In addition, in their respective reports, the benches confirmed that they have 522 IAVE cards in use, one for each deputy and the rest for officials who collaborate with them. In total, the chamber allocates 17 million pesos for legislators to travel by road without paying for the booths.
Subsidies are awarded to parliamentary groups according to the number of their members. Morena, which has 201 deputies, received the largest amount: from March to August, 291 million 155 thousand pesos.
He had started the semester with an available balance of 33.8 million pesos, and in that period he spent 299,580,000 pesos, of which he only broke down the destination of 6,181,000 pesos; the rest justified it as other general services
without detailing the destination.
The PAN, as second force, received 202.2 million, detailed the expenditure of 100.2 million, and also resorted to the heading of other general services
to justify 45.6 million.
The third political force, the PRI, received 129.2 million, of which 19 were placed in that same category. Respectively, 81.4, 69.6, 53 and 35 million were assigned to PVEM, PT, MC and PRD.
