Audit of NAIM uncovers embezzlement of more than 100 million pesos – El Sol de México

A new audit of Airport Group of Mexico City (GACM) detected diversions for more than one hundred million pesos in a contract for systems in what would be the New International Airport of Mexico (NAIM), which was being built in Texcoco.

The inspection act AFOP-01/2023, carried out by the GACM Internal Control Body in the first quarter of this year, found that in a contract for services there was an amount to be cleared of 100 million 323 thousand 763 pesos.

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The contract concerned the supply of independent systems consolidator (CSI) services for the NAIMwhich focus on requirements for the design and integration of critical systems of technologyAccording to the report.

“Weaknesses were identified in the functions of the Residence, by not monitoring the correct compliance with the Terms of reference of the contract and the application of the regulations regarding Public works and related services”, says the audit published on the group’s transparency portal.

The contract was awarded in June 2018 by the GACM to the enterprise Ross and Baruzzini, Inc., after a restricted bidding.

Already in the Results Report of the Superior Audit of the Public Account 2018, the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF) had detected alleged deviations in the contracting of services for the construction of the NAIMdue to duplicate payments, among other anomalies.

Ross and Baruzzini, Inc. was a company designated by the ASF because its work plan lacked a proposal on how the activities for the execution of the services and guarantees in the fulfillment of the contract would be carried out.

Fernando Gomez Suarezan analyst in the aviation sector, explained that after audits, strange situations are often found that can lead the authorities to carry out new acts of inspection.

“Previous audits can be reviewed if they suspect something irregular, there are even tax forensics that go further. That is to say, an issue could be resolved or they dig it up again to apply more auditing acts”, he commented.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador canceled the construction of the NAIM at the beginning of 2019, at the very beginning of his six-year term, this after a public consultation and after pointing out acts of corruption around the work that would be the largest project of the Enrique Peña Nieto government.

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However, the then Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT), Javier Jiménez Espriú, declared that the cancellation was due to technical and financial reasons, not to corrupt acts. In the audit of the 2018 Public Account, the ASF found unclear amounts in various works of the airport project for some 44.1 million pesos. The supervisory body also found irregularities in the contracting processes for the construction of eight structures during the last year of the previous administration.

On the contrary, the ASF reported in 2021 that the cost of canceling the NAIM was 331 billion pesosalthough months later he corrected the figure after indications from the President of the Republic himself and left it in 113 billion pesos.