Mexico Natural Disaster Funds canceled by AMLO government now seeks 26.5 billion pesos from the treasury for disaster relief efforts

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The AMLO government decreed the disappearance of trusts to support those affected by natural disasters.

The Natural Disaster Fund (Fonden) and the Natural Disaster Prevention Fund (Fopreden) transferred more than 26 thousand 519 billion pesos to the Federation Treasury, as part of its extinction ordered by the deputies Morena, PES, PT and PVEM.

Through deposits, the National Bank of Public Works and Services (Banobras), which was in charge of managing the money used to deal with emergencies caused by rains, hurricanes, earthquakes, tremors, fires, and other natural disasters, was in charge of sending the money. between March and June 2021 to the bank accounts of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).

Oficial: Hacienda elimina el Fonden; se hallaron deficiencias

According to the deposit and official documents held by Forbes Mexico, the SHCP received more than 25 thousand 181 billion pesos from the Natural Disaster Fund, which was administered by the Ministry of the Interior (Segob).

During the governments of Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón, Segob was in charge of making emergency declarations due to a natural disaster. That money was dispersed and entered by the Ministry of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu), who was in charge of making lists of beneficiaries as occurred in the earthquakes of September 2017 with the construction of houses in Chiapas, Oaxaca, Morelos, Guerrero, State of Mexico and Mexico City.

The Fund for the Prevention of Natural Disasters, a trust administered by the Ministry of Public Safety and Citizen Protection (SSPPC), delivered more than 1,338 million pesos to the Treasury of the Federation to be sent to the Ministry of Finance. The money from that fund was dispersed by the National Civil Protection Coordination.

“The Fonden does not exist, because it was an instrument plagued with corruption,” he declared. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of the Republic to defend the disappearance of this fund.

The president pointed out that it was a practice to declare emergencies, disaster areas and authorize massive purchases or carry out works without bidding, or transfer money from the federal government to the states to do the same.

Hacienda hace oficial la desaparición del Fonden

“If there was a drought, if there was a flood, then the Fonden was used and the money did not reach the people,” said the founder of Morena.

The former head of the Government of Mexico City expressed that there were suppliers who already had as an assignment to deliver food, pantries, mats, and everything that was required: this”.

“Many irregularities, to put it nicely. Then, that is finished and those funds are managed by the Treasury and, if needed, they are used and, if those funds do not reach, the budgets for the agencies are expanded, “added López Obrador.

Due to its geographical position, Mexico is exposed to the permanent risk of facing contingencies derived from natural phenomena, as well as tectonic-geological, which represents additional pressures on federal public spending.

The trusts that disappeared due to the Fourth Transformation were converted by the governments of Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, Vicente Fox Quesada, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and Enrique Peña Nieto as financial and economic instruments aimed at preventing, reducing, and combating the effects and contingencies derived from natural phenomena.

The Fonden was created by José Ángel Gurría Treviño, Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, at the end of July 1999 to address the adverse effects caused by natural disasters in the federal government in a coordinated manner with the state, municipal and state governments. then Federal District.

Hacienda oficializa extinción del Fondo de Desastres Naturales | Noticias  de México | EL IMPARCIAL

Each year, the fund received contributions from the surpluses generated from each fiscal year, as well as a budget allocation, donations, and the returns generated by the investment. It had a technical committee and operating rules for the distribution of money after natural disasters, which have hit Mexico ever since. 

On the last day of 2003, the Fopreden was constituted by Carlos Hurtado López, SHCP’s Undersecretary of Expenditures, to distribute public resources to the communities where there was an emergency due to a natural disaster. 

The deputies of Morena and the PES decreed that the remaining resources of the Fonden and Foprenden had to be concentrated on June 30, 2021, by concept of exploitation, to the Treasury of the Federation. Subsequently “they will be allocated by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit for the attention of natural disasters, as well as to cover pending obligations that are not paid out of the trust assets.”

On June 27, 2021, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) reported that it abrogates the Natural Disaster Fund and Fund for the Prevention of Natural Disasters, thereby making its disappearance and extension official.

Now the Budget Policy and Control Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit will be in charge of establishing the budgetary mechanisms to exercise the resources of the disappeared Fonden and FOPREDEN in the execution of programs and projects to deal with the damage caused by natural phenomena. disturbing.

The National Coordination of Civil Protection of the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection must issue the additional provisions corresponding to the scope of attributions for the conduct and implementation of policies and programs for prevention, assistance, recovery, and support to the population in disaster situations.

This is how they moved the money from the disaster funds

At 8:40 a.m. on March 10, 2021, Banobras made a deposit of 7,891 billion pesos (from Fonden) to the Treasury of the Federation of the SHCP for federal taxes, rights, products and uses.

A second financial operation of the Fonden money was carried out on the morning of July 29, 2021, when they delivered more than 124 billion 996 thousand pesos. Minutes before seven in the afternoon that day, Banobras sent 17 thousand 163 billion pesos from the Natural Disaster Fund to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

On May 5, 2021, the National Bank of Public Works and Services transferred 1,334 billion pesos, which were in the Fund for the Prevention of Natural Disasters, to the Federal Treasury.

Banobras made a deposit of 38 thousand 662 thousand pesos and another of 4 billion 100 thousand pesos to the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit on July 30, 2021.

So far, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit nor the National Civil Protection Coordination of the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection has not reported how it will deliver the money, which was kept in the natural disaster funds created during Ernesto’s government. Zedillo Ponce de León and Vicente Fox Quesada.

Source: forbes.com.mx

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