The model of centralization of purchases in the Treasury failed: experts


To return government purchases to the Ministry of Public Administration (SFP) is to accept that the strategy that was adopted at the beginning of the six-year term of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of concentrating these purchases in the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), does not it worked.

“The government is accepting that the model it created in 2018 did not work, otherwise it would not be changing it now,” said Mariana Campos, coordinator of the Public Expenditure and Accountability Program of México Evalúa.

With the arrival of López Obrador to the presidency, in 2018, a decree was published in which the Administration and Finance Units were created, while the Ministry of Finance was granted the power to exercise budgetary control of contracting. through the Mayor’s Office, at that time led by Raquel Buenrostro, current head of the SAT and one of the officials closest to López Obrador.

“The change does have to do, without saying so, without putting it in the initiative, in that the powers that had been given to the Mayor’s Office were not enough, or probably the experience and capacity that the Official’s Office had to comply with its powers that already had within the SHCP, how to monitor spending and now carry out the contracting policy, it was exceeded, and we have seen it in the last three years,” said Fernanda Avendaño, IMCO Anticorruption Coordinator.

He added that despite the fact that since 2018 the Mayor’s Office was the one in charge of government purchases, it was necessary to modify contracting laws and some other regulations to be able to make the change official.

A few days ago, the President sent Congress an initiative to reform the Organic Law of Public Administration, in which control is returned to the SFP for public contracts carried out by the entire federal government, in order to participate in trade negotiations. agreements related to public sector purchases, coordinate strategic purchases and develop provisions that promote the participation of national suppliers.

Likewise, the Public Function is granted the coordination and management of the Administrative and Finance Units of public entities, except for the Secretary of National Defense, the Secretary of the Navy of Mexico, and the productive companies of the State.

Interest conflict

Returning government purchases to the SFP, currently headed by Roberto Salcedo Aquino, can strengthen the agency; however, the experts pointed out that there may be a conflict of interest in bringing back that faculty.

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