Audit of fiscal year 2021 – Sol de Orizaba

Recently, Veracruz’s supreme watchdog, ORFIS, filed five complaints of alleged property damage in the municipalities of Ángel ar Cappada, Lerdo de Tejada, Naranjos-Amatlán, Tecolotla and Licoatla, which were headed in the previous administrations by Arturo Hervez Reyes, Hermas Cortes García , Victor Roman Jiménez, Juan Angel Espego, and Fidincio Romero Ortega, respectively.

In those municipal governments, the alleged damage to property may exceed 45 million pesos.

The audit body also announced that in its fiscal year 2020 audit, 1,822 observations were submitted to Veracruz city councils, with an amount exceeding 1,682,472,000 pesos.

Following up on this topic, the newspaper Imagine de Veracruz on Monday broadcast an interview with local representative Luis Arturo Santiago Martinez, who heads the oversight committee of the local congress.

The legislator stated that all former Veracruz mayors who committed irregularities in their accounts have already been notified of the notes ORFIS made for the 2021 fiscal year.

Previous mayors had until June 2 to present evidence explaining the observations they had received; It is concluded, as happens every year, that not everyone has been able to resolve the irregularities discovered in their accounts, so it is to be expected that there will be more complaints.

The legislator stated to the media that as a result of the reviews serious cases such as forgery of documents were revealed; He revealed that many former mayors contracted with external offices, in a desperate attempt to settle their accounts and avoid accusations of diverting resources.

Regardless of the aforementioned post, although the 2021 audit is still in progress, it must be considered that this was the last year of the previous municipal administrations, so that if the previous mayors could not resolve the observations issued by ORFIS in 2019 and 2020, when They theoretically had free access to documents from the Treasury and Public Works Districts, they won’t do so much in 2021.

For this reason, in the process of resolving the observations, we will see a procession of former mayors through the facilities of the ORFIS and the Oversight Committee of the Local Congress, in the first place; And in cases where the diversion of resources and damage to property is documented, the ball will remain in the courts of the State Prosecutor’s Office and the courts.

This would start a real ordeal for mayors, trustees, treasurers and former public works managers of municipalities accused of getting their hands on the treasury.

If the current government’s repeated statements about ending impunity are true, then this year and 2022 we will see dozens of former mayors in trouble with the law.

Sedatu and resources for markets

Federal Programs delegate in Veracruz, Manuel Huerta Ladron de Guevara, criticized the loss of resources intended to reshape markets in the municipalities of Xalapa (La Rotonda), Minatitlan and San Andrés Tuxtla.

In those municipalities, Sedatu will allocate federal resources to rehabilitate markets; It is a management that previous administrations have done, he said, but that current municipal governments are losing out on due to a lack of ability to mediate with tenants.

In the case of Xalapa, former mayor Hipólito Rodriguez did little during his administration; This management of the La Rotonda remodel was salvageable, but the tenants’ refusal and the inability of the current city council to convince them that the projected work would bring long-term benefits prevented it from being implemented.

MustafaHosny Oh God, Amen