The New Anticorruption System of Mexico, the civil society claims against the interest of the political class (2/2)

The approved New Anticorruption System (NAS) has left no one satisfy with its shortened scope and other bias. This makes hard to imagine a happy ending against corruption, neither for society nor for PRI, which depends on the media impact that “ley 3 de 3” will have. In case people make the PRI reliable of the limited results, they would be in trouble running a competitive campaign for 2018 presidency.

At the beginning of Enrique Peña Nieto´s presidency the global media was very supportive to his proposed policies. A short-term action plan was signed with the principal parties (PAN and PRD) to approve laws that would make Mexico more competitive through the liberalization of the energetic sector, and other actions as the fiscal, the educative and the financial reforms.

Months later, the enthusiastic feeling turn into deception; every day new cases of corruption were discovered at the closest circle of the president.

Now, after a nightmare election for the PRI, a NAS was approved under the proposal of important think tanks from Mexico.

Would the approved version of the NSA mean a step forward for the wellbeing of Mexico´s democracy? After all, the country´s political system has shown to be defined by simulation.

In 2002, under Vicente Fox´s presidency, the Public Servant System “Servicio Profesional de Carrera” was approved, in order to recruit in the public administration the most professional human resources. Ten years later, the system has shown to be as corrupt as the Government Procurement.

Any newly graduated professional may be witness of this. No matter how well prepared or how well experienced the candidates are, the ex-ante elected candidate will be chosen, no matter the amounts of financial, human and material resources that have to be expend in order to make legally binding a de-facto decision.

Firstly, the vacancy requirements are designed to be met for the “amigo[1]” in question, so he/she won’t be automatically rejected; secondly, the technical exams are made by the direct superior of the position (the boss), and there is any mechanism to prevent that he/she shares it; thirdly, as said previously, in the documentation review he/she will fulfill all requirements; finally, an ad hoc committee will be integrated for interviews, taking part the direct superior, the human resources department and the internal control office, being in the best scenario those members not part of the corrupt agreement, the result will favor the previously chosen candidate awarded with a five year position.

There is no need to explain that the mechanisms for complaining any process of the ones mention above will not proceed in any way. The responsible office for complains is the Ministry of Public Function (Secretaría de la Función Pública - SFP), the one that was in charge of investigating Mr. Peña´s USD 7million house.

Similar situations can be find in other recruitment systems in the public sector (i.e. foreign affairs and electoral). Under these scenarios, is it worth it to have faith in the NAS?

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[1] Meaning by “amigo”, someone who personally knows the future winner (family, friend, etc.) or that owns a favor to someone else and this is the way of paying back the favor.

The New Anticorruption System of Mexico, the civil society claims against the interest of the political class (1/2)

In the last elections, the governing party (PRI[1]) got 5 victories out of 12 in the local states, a total disaster when the Party president´s bet was as high as 9 victories. On the other hand, PAN[2] obtained 7 states and now it will be governing most states than ever before.

 The unexpected results of this election have a simple explanation. The most important topic at this moment on the Mexican society is the incredible and unpunished corruption in the country.

At the beginning of the year a group of think tanks used a newly acquired power of the civil society to get in the legislative agenda a New Anticorruption System (NAS). The idea of this was to build a national system that works, without any loose ends, with clearly definitions about crimes, responsibilities and functions. Opposed to the segmented, unclear and subject-to-political-factors system in force.

The debate in Congress got the attention of all society. On one side, PRI and its allies made their own proposals and fought for taking the bluntest parts of the original proposal (also the ones with more media attention, such as the one that requires all public servants to disclose their linkages of interest, their wealth and fiscal declarations); on the other hand, PAN and the leftist party, PRD[3], pushed to pass the proposal with all its elements.

As the elections got closer, the legislators decided to stop the discussion and continue after the electoral process. As a result the society expressed its discontent by voting against the PRI.

As a damage control, the PRI accepted an extraordinary legislative period with the intention of approving the NAS.   

Last week, the extraordinary legislative period was held and the NAS was approved in general vote; but the part of the proposal that gives its name “ley 3 de 3” (in reference of the above mention disclosure obligations[4]) was subject to a polemical vote, where PRI and allies finally won with a simple majority in the absence of some left wing senators, to limit the scope of the disclosure to a non-public declaration.

The approved NSA has left no one satisfy with its shortened scope and other bias. This makes hard to imagine a happy ending against corruption, neither for society nor for PRI, which depends on the media impact that “ley 3 de 3” will have. In case people make the PRI reliable of the limited results, they would be in trouble running a competitive campaign for 2018 presidency.

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[1] PRI – Partido Revolucionario Institucional.

[2] PAN – Partido de Acción Nacional.

[3] PRD – Partido de la Revolución Democrática.

[4] …disclose their linkages of interest, their wealth and fiscal declarations.

How to create a Constitution for Mexico City without make it useless?

In México, the Federal District, no longer exist, officially since January 29th this year, its name is “Ciudad de México” México City, an additional state of the country. Therefore, there will be some changes largely expected for the local government, for example, the ministry of public security will no longer have to be approved by the President, as well as the attorney general of the city; additionally the city will have access to other budgetary pockets of the national income. On the other hand, the citizens will have to expend more money on hiring more government employees, because the “delegaciones” now will be municipalities and such change will mean that they should have their own council.

Of course people is not very enthusiastic about it, there is a feeling that there was not a need for a local constitution. As a prove of that is that, in the election there were only 28% of potential voters the ones that chose the Constituent Assembly.

Now we will see a new chapter in the battle for Mexico City, how to create a constitution that reflects better the interests of each party? It is not for the wellbeing of the citizens, is for the image that the new constitution will project for all the country. Everyone is conscious of that, the political integration of the assembly does not mean more budget, the positions are nonpaid, so there was not particular interest for people to try to win, that’s also another reason of the low participation of voters.

During campaigns was usual to hear about particular minority groups trying to be taken into account by their proposals for the constitution; women’s, homosexuals, young people, indigenous people, etc. Of course they have the right to push for their particular agenda. But, in for the writing of the constitution, parties will try to explicitly express each of one of those rights, without care if there is the possibility of establishing more general principles. That’s their point; parties have the opportunity to speak to their own “clients”.

For example, we can expect to see many references to the right to work, “Article X. young people has the right to work…”, “Article XI. indigenous people has the right to work..”, “Article XII. women has the right to work..” and so on.

 Since that perspective, we will end with a local constitution similar to the ones in Venezuela with 350 articles and Ecuador with 444 articles, making the process useless and the hole process just a political waste of time and money.