Fonden took up to 2 months to attend to an emergency

Raquel Buenrostro explained that the execution of Fonden resources could take up to 42 business days before addressing an emergency, that is, the equivalent of almost two months, due to “opaque” bureaucratic procedures.

Mexico City, October 24 (However).- The head of the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Secretariat, Raquel Buenrostrodetailed this Friday the inefficiency, opacity and corruption that marked the Natural Disasters Fund (The foundation) in recent decades, since it took up to two months to be able to exert the necessary resources to respond to an emergency.

At the press conference of President Claudia Sheinabuam Pardo, the official recalled that to carry out the execution of resources from the The foundation they had to pass 42 business daysthat is, the equivalent of almost two monthsto respond to a natural disaster. In this sense, he compared the actions of the governments of Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto in the face of emergencies caused by natural phenomena, and highlighted the attention of the current Administration to the damage left by the tropical storm “Raymond” in the national territory.

“It only took three days for the municipality and the state to present the request for a disaster declaration, because first there had to be a declaration in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), if not, the money could not be spent, but if the municipality was flooded, then at what time did they submit the disaster declaration? Three days was what it took the federal government in this event to free all the federal highways,” he specified.

Raquel Buenrostro gave an extensive report on the history of Fonden, which was conceptually born in 1996, during the six-year term of Ernesto Zedillo, when resources were budgetary, but starting in 1999 a trust was created that she described as “opaque.”

“This trust has several characteristics. First, since it is a trust, its use of resources is more opaque. It is beginning to be very opaque because the trusts did not have as many rules as those that public trusts have now. Remember that at some point, the federal government was not even aware of how many public trusts there were,” he added.

“So (Fonden) was born at a time when trusts were completely obscure. They were not published, no information was given. It was not even known exactly how many trusts existed,” he added. He also recalled that for the federal government to provide resources for an emergency in a certain state or municipality, said entity also had to contribute 50 percent of the expense.

“If a municipality did not have money, and was in a natural disaster, there were no resources. So, nice help because there was no money,” said the Secretary.

Buenrostro Sánchez explained that between 2000 and 2009 a series of rules began to exist that made the trust system very bureaucratic, the process of which allowed action in the face of an emergency up to 120 days after what happened.

After 2009, the figure of “Immediate Partial Support” emerged, with which the federal government no longer expected the action of the state or municipality, but continued to operate with resources from Fonden, while in 2010 it was established that the federal government could provide up to 50 percent of the resources for an emergency. And it was not until 2021 that the figure of Fonden disappeared.

The official highlighted the irregularities and corruption plots that were woven around the Fonden during the last three six-year terms of neoliberalism. For example, in the Administration of Vicente Fox Quesada, the ASF presented observations for 181.6 million pesos in 2005 against the Civil Protection Coordinator, Carmen Segura Rangel, for which she was disqualified for 10 years and fined 1.77 million pesos. However, the Internal Control Body of the Government annulled the previous sanctions due to lack of elements, and the official only received a private reprimand in 2008.

In addition, he highlighted that during the same six-year period there were also purchases with overprices of up to 375 percent in medicines and healing materials; payments for undelivered medications and million-dollar purchases from companies established in mechanical workshops or parking lots, and purchases of mattresses from accounting firms.

For its part, during the administration of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, the Foden authorized the Government of Veracruz, headed by Javier Duarte, resources for seven thousand 411 million pesos, of which the Governor did not use or return 531.7 million pesos, as determined by the ASF in 2014.

Furthermore, in 2011, the former governor of Tabasco, Andrés Granier, used 215.5 million pesos from Fonden to cover a state financial deficit, and his personal expenses such as telephone, vouchers, cleaning and consulting. As a result of these actions, Granier was arrested in June 2013 for embezzlement and tax evasion.

Later, during the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, the ASF detected delays of up to 119 days in the start of works and overexertion of resources to address the disasters caused by hurricanes “Ingrid” and “Manuel.” Irregularities were also detected in the Nuevo Guerrero Plan, which included a budget of 40,247 million pesos, of which Fonden contributed 12,206 million pesos, but of the 43 subdivisions to relocate 10,000 families, 30 of which were uninhabited and the rest had structural failures.

Buenrostro Sánchez also explained that in 2018, in an election year, 46 of 57 extraordinary declarations were declared due to heat waves, which concentrated 427 million pesos.

In addition, Raquel Buensrostro pointed out that during Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term, a budget ceiling of 59,606 million pesos was reached to address emergencies, compared to the highest figure spent by the Government of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a budget ceiling of 37,685 million was reached. weights.

• In 2023, due to Hurricane “Otis”, 301,076 people were assisted with a budget of 15,257 million pesos.
• In 2024, due to Hurricane “John”, 143,484 people were assisted with a budget of 6,108 million pesos.
• And in 2025, due to Hurricane “Erick”, 59,512 people were assisted with an investment of 2,228 million pesos.

“In other words, much more was done, faster, with less money, and also with direct help to the people,” concluded the Secretary of Anti-Corruption and Good Government.

Due to its extensive procedure, the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) concluded in a 2017 opinion that Fonden:

• It presented inefficiency, ineffectiveness and high operating costs.
• It was more reactive than preventative.
• It had excessive bureaucracy and lack of inter-institutional coordination.
• It suffered from opacity and corruption in execution.
• It did not guarantee a quick response or transparency to the citizen.