Chihuahua, Chih.- According to the audit reports of the 2022 Public Accounts carried out by the State Superior Audit Office (ASE), there are irregularities in the contracting of credits in six municipalities of the entity that led to observations and even complaints.
Due to serious omissions in the contracting of loans, the ASE filed criminal charges against the outgoing municipal administrations of San Francisco del Oro and Rosales, given that they omitted legal procedures. In addition, in four other municipalities – Moris, Villa Ahumada, Matachí and Guadalupe y Calvo – minor irregularities have been observed in the acquisition of public debt.
The loan requested by Arturo Huerta Luévano, as mayor of San Francisco del Oro until last Monday afternoon, compromised 21 percent of the municipal budget, since it involved paying the private financial institution Alderiva de México SAPI, 14.4 million pesos, despite the fact that its expenditure was 69.3 million pesos.
According to the 2022 Public Account report, the irregularities committed by the Huerta Luévano administration warranted the filing of a criminal complaint, for which the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office acted, which upon further investigation determined the possible crimes committed and requested an arrest warrant from the court, which was executed on Monday.
The government headed by the former mayor, a member of the Labor Party, took out a loan with the private financial institution, without adhering to the procedures duly established for this.
The municipality, located in the southern part of the state, in the Parral region, had a budget of 69.3 million pesos that year, 90 percent of which was allocated to current expenses, that is, to sustain government operations; of its total expenditure, 69 percent was to pay the payroll.
For investment or capital expenditure, it allocated only four percent of its budget and for transfers and social aid, only six percent.
With a population of just over five thousand inhabitants, according to the most recent population census, its public spending per capita, resulting from the division of its annual budget by its number of inhabitants, was just over 13,500 pesos.
With these indicators, the municipal government contracted debt for almost six million pesos, without adhering to the procedures provided for in the Public Debt Law of the State of Chihuahua and in the Financial Discipline Law of the Federative Entities and Municipalities with Alderiva de México, SAPI de CV, a Multiple Purpose Financial Company/Unregulated Entity, one of the financial institutions that do not require government authorization for its activity.
However, the debt was not authorized by two-thirds of the Council, the highest governing body of the municipality; in addition, the administration failed to register the debt with the State Congress through the ASE and did not prove the authorization of the Legislature with two-thirds of the deputies.
It also failed to prove that the debt was contracted under the best conditions on the market and that the contracts agreed upon, in violation of all regulations, forced the municipal government to pay only the interest and not to pay for the amortization of the capital.
Other allegations that led to the filing of a criminal complaint by the ASE before the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the initiation of administrative liability proceedings were that the debt was used to cover current expenses and that it did not publish the balance and movements of the debt in the Official State Gazette (POE) and the newspapers with the largest circulation.
Another criminal complaint against a former mayor, also for irregularities in the contracting of debt, is the one filed against Marcial Romualdo Márquez, who last Monday handed over the municipal administration of Rosales and who requested a loan for three million pesos without the respective authorization of the City Council or the State Congress.
The administration of PAN member Marcial Márquez contracted debt at a fixed annual rate of 10 percent, authorizing the Ministry of Finance to make the corresponding discount of the Federal Participations through 18 partial and consecutive charges; therefore, the total amount to be paid rose to three million 252 thousand 248 pesos.
The municipality, with a population of almost 17 thousand inhabitants, had a global expenditure of 66.2 million pesos in 2022; 81 percent of its budget was allocated to government operations (payroll, general services and materials and supplies), while only 11 percent was allocated to transfers and social aid. Eight percent was allocated to investment expenditure.
Similar to what happened in San Francisco del Oro, the debt was omitted from being registered with Congress through the ASE; the balance and movements of the debt were not published in the Official State Gazette and in newspapers with the largest circulation, and the debt was not registered in the corresponding Single Public Registry.
Furthermore, the Municipal Income Law did not provide for such a contract and did not present evidence to prove that the loan was used for productive public investment.
Regarding the municipalities of Moris, Matachí and Guadalupe y Calvo, after the review, the ASE issued only recommendations, since at the time of obtaining their credit it was only detected that they omitted the publication of the balances and movements at the end of their fiscal year, that is, minor omissions.
In the case of the municipality of Ahumada, also with minor omissions, the recommendations established were for the omission of the registration and publication of debt in accordance with the Law of Financial Discipline.
According to information from the ASE, in addition to the above, within the current process of auditing the Public Account 2023, which is currently being carried out by the auditors, two other cases of municipalities with irregularities in the contracting of debt have already been detected; however, we will have to wait for the conclusion of the reviews to know the exact results and the scope of the omissions and the corresponding actions.
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