Manuel Bartlett admits before deputies debts and losses in CFE

Bartlett said that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s instruction not to increase rates beyond inflation “to protect the economy of Mexican families and the State as a whole” has been fulfilled. “It has worked as an anti-inflationary anchor,” she said.

Despite the increase in costs such as fuel, which “in September represented an increase of 90% compared to September 2021, the president’s order has been fulfilled: in September 2022, while inflation reaches 8%, low consumption domestic rates have increased only 5.9%, industrial rates 6.3%; and the commercial ones 5.9%”, he celebrated.

It also reported a debt, as of September 2022, of 433,300 million pesos, 13.5% extra compared to the end of December 2021, “derived from the higher expenses it has faced due to the increase in fuels due to the war in Ukraine.”

But these are not resources that will go to current spending, but for investment in productive projects, “such as generation plants or new transmission networks, which offer high rates of return,” he said.

During his appearance before the United Commissions on Energy and Infrastructure of the Chamber of Deputies and on the occasion of the gloss of the Fourth Government Report, Barlett thanked the government for having decided to rescue the CFE.

“The rescue of the CFE is already a reality. It does not perish, it grows stronger,” she said.

“We can affirm that, despite the resistance of interests and the framework that they left in place to destroy it, the disappearance of the national electricity company has been averted. Not only has their rescue been achieved, but today Mexicans have a stronger institution,” he added.

He also referred to the investments it makes for the construction of plants that reinforce its production capacity, with which the CFE, ”despite very severe crises such as the pandemic, the freezing of gas pipelines in Texas and the war, maintains its expansion with a increase of 9,000 MW in installed capacity, which will translate into an increase in sales of 40%”.

However, the optimism was cut short by the opposition. Francisco Loyola, a PAN member, questioned that losses and debt are still being invested in the CFE and not allow private investment, with cheaper power generation.

He also claimed that the rise in electricity was what most affected the pocket of households during the first half of October, with a rise of 17.4%, which is much more than what the basic basket rose.

Manuel Jesús Herrera, deputy of Movimiento Ciudadano expressed his concern about the CFE, since it reports millionaire losses in its operation and continues not allowing renewable energy projects to private companies.

He stressed that according to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), the CFE recorded a net loss in the first nine months of this year, for 50 thousand 700 million pesos.

“There is talk of growth in income, but also in losses and debt; it is a financial disaster and this government continues to allocate resources to a company that is not efficient,” he said.

For the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), deputy Sue Ellen Bernal questioned the red numbers and inefficiency of the CFE, which increased its operating costs by 12%, recorded losses of 214 billion pesos and increased its debt by 13.5%.

PAN member Gina Campuzano highlighted that the CFE’s losses were more than triple that of 2021 and more losses will come due to pending national and international litigation. “If you were my employee, I wouldn’t have lasted a month in that position because I was incompetent,” she told Bartlett.

The losses of Pemex and CFE since 2018 “equivalent to 3 canceled Texcoco airports and are equivalent to two Fobaproas,” he added.

The also PAN member Genoveva Huerta also censured that the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) detected inconsistencies for 1,634 million pesos in 2021, 40% of the total observations of all dependencies.

For the PRD, deputy Mauricio Prieto Gómez disqualified Bartlett. “He’s not welcome here, we don’t believe his report,” he declared.

“You need to be very cheeky to call us traitors to the country, you are the true traitor, in 1988 there was a traitor to the country and that is you,” he snapped.