Sheinbaum defends reforms to works and acquisition laws

Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia

La Jornada newspaper
Friday, April 11, 2025, p. 6

Reforms to procurement and public works laws seek to achieve greater traceability, expedite processes and promote productive chains in the country, with a view to accelerating the Mexico Plan.

In the morning of yesterday, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and the head of the Anti -Corruption and Good Governance Secretariat, Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, presented these regulatory modifications – which are in discussion in the Senate -, which, they said, will allow eradicating any possible corruption.

The president said that sometimes the contests for public works are delayed, which extends the beginning of them. A work that could begin in February, throughout the bureaucracy, ends up in October of the year and then you can no longer exercise all the resources that were available for it.

He also said, these changes will help to have more accessible prices of products. And what has to do with the Mexico Plan, which is to promote productive chains in our country, that we buy more, the government, what is done in Mexico.

The Goodrostro Secretary clarified that the reforms will expedite and transparent the purchase processes of the Government of Mexico, by including modalities efficient and competitivesuch as reverse auctions, direct awards with negotiation strategy, competitive dialogues and market research, among others.

On the Procurement Law, he explained that, with these new modalities, consolidated purchases and macro agreements are strengthened to get less price, taking advantage of economies of scale and increasing the national content of purchases, which goes from 50 to 65 percent to boost Mexico’s industrial policy and strengthen the domestic market.

He remarked that the Compranet platform does not disappear, but that it is modernized and improved, as it was updated in the last six -year term and will now be homologated with the law.

By presenting specifications of the Works Law, he pointed out that the Secretariats of Defense and the Navy, which reserve information for national security reasons, will be obliged to disseminate and transparent contracts when they participate in activities or public works that are not national security.

To avoid corruption cases such as the so -called master scam, goodrostro stressed that with the reforms limitations are imposed on purchase modalities to guarantee greater transparency, so there can be no subcontracting of more than 49 percent and that all contracts have to go up to Compranet.