Breathe
By Frida Mendoza
What could 65 million pesos be spent on? If you ask me, it would be possible to buy a house, a big house, or several... and the money would be left over, because it is too much. 360 million, it would be better not to talk about it.
But what happens if we add as a variable that these millions come from public money? Whatever the item, we can think of a thousand options for investment and improvement of services for society.
I mention these amounts to you because I recently published an investigation in Emeequis where I describe that during 2020 the Federal Education Authority of Mexico City (AEFCM) was investigated by the Federal Superior Audit Office (ASF) which detected 65 million pesos in phantom payments.
What do I mean by phantom? Payments to education workers who were inactive, on leave without pay, terminated or deceased.
But the matter does not stop there. Reviewing the audits I found that this type of phantom payments is systematic, since in the audits that the ASF carried out to the AEFCM in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021 these irregularities were also found, so adding up we have the amount of 360 million pesos in phantom payments.
This amount, I know, does not compare to the multi-million dollar embezzlements of the Estafa Maestra or Segalmex, but if we pay attention, it is a very representative amount that could generate important changes in education or even be used for new hires or salary increases for teachers.
And where is that money? We do not know, since from these compliance audits of the ASF the action to which they resorted was to a "pliego de observación", which means that it is admitted that there was damage to the Federal Public Treasury and therefore, it could proceed in a complaint of facts before the Attorney General's Office so that those responsible are punished. However, this did not happen and even worse, the audits of 2016 and 2018 are already time-barred.
Such hard topics can bore us, but talking about this is necessary to follow up and ensure that the budgeted money fulfills its function and that they are supervised as they should so that in this case the children in basic education, as well as their teachers, prosper in the conditions they need and even more.
And, it is curious because sometimes there are topics that journalists do not let go and while writing the investigation in Emeequis I kept repeating a phrase that I used to say over and over again when I participated in the collaborative report In search of the lost moneyWhy is it that if governments tell us that the future lies in children and young people, they do not take care of them and do not try to provide them with the best educational conditions?
Both in that investigation where I found the consequences of poor auditing and no follow-up to the audits of the embezzled universities in Tabasco, and now where there are millions lost in ghost payments in the capital's schools, I can agree on how necessary and urgent it is for the ASF to comply with its work and how systematic this type of theft can be, because that is what it is.
It is still possible to know where the 65 million pesos of 2020 went, the year of the pandemic, of the home classes, of the teachers who invested in telephone or computer equipment to be able to teach their subjects, of the beginning of an educational regression and backwardness. Still.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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