there is still time to reconsider

The Chamber of Deputies is preparing to approve the constitutional reform known as “organic simplification” – one more within the so-called Plan C of Andrés Manuel López Obrador -, which in reality has the sole objective of disappearing seven autonomous constitutional bodies.

If the legislative process is as fast as that of previous Plan C reforms, in a couple of weeks the INAI, Coneval, Ifetel, Cofece, Mejoredu, the Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Hydrocarbons Commission will have to disappear.

The argument or pretext is that, with its disappearance, the federal government could save 32 billion pesos and allocate them to the Pension Fund for Wellbeing.

In fact, this reform responds to an old prejudice of former President López Obrador, who always considered these organizations as bureaucratic, corrupt structures, dominated by officials without ethics or scruples, and who duplicated functions.

The previous and current governments blame the autonomous constitutional bodies for multiple sins, mainly the behavior of their commissioners, advisors and other high officials: charging salaries higher than that of the President of the Republic, having excessive benefits – such as feeding expenses, travel expenses and insurance -, and the fact that they are revolving doors, in which one day they are regulators and the next day they are part of the regulated companies and entities.

Certainly, some of those responsible have done serious damage to these institutions with their behavior in office and after office. One case stands out, as an example: Ximena Puente, who was president of Inai from 2014 to 2017, and in 2018 she was already a federal deputy of the PRI, promoted by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

In the cases of regulatory bodies for economic activities and the energy sector, serious omissions have been reported in specific cases, preferential treatment to hegemonic companies and, in short, the co-option of regulators by those regulated.

Despite these “sins,” the big question is whether the best way to solve the problems of autonomous organizations is to disappear them and return to the institutional model prior to the 1990s, when PRI governments lacked counterweights.

The opinion that will be discussed on Wednesday in the Chamber of Deputies proposes that the functions performed by these organizations be performed by other institutions, mainly government agencies with the exception of Coneval, whose functions would be transferred to another autonomous body that will survive the reform of the “ Plan C”: INEGI.

Maintaining the assessment of social policy in another body with constitutional autonomy does not sound bad, at first; However, Coneval has expressed that this reform puts at risk the State’s ability to support the fight against poverty and the promotion of social rights.

In other cases, it would be the Government that performs functions that, a couple of decades ago, were placed in an autonomous body to prevent the Government from being judge and party:

The functions of the CNH and CRE would pass to the Ministry of Energy; those of Ifetel to the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation; those of Mejoredu to the Ministry of Public Education; those of Cofece to the Ministry of Economy, and those of INAI to the new Anti-Corruption and Good Government Secretariat.

Of all the changes, the most crazy and risky is the one that seeks to transfer the functions of the INAI to the Anti-Corruption Secretariat, today in the hands of the Morenista Raquel Buenrostro.

The decision puts at risk the right to information, enshrined in the sixth article of the Constitution, since the collegiate body in which disputes filed by citizens who are denied the delivery of public information are debated and decided is eliminated. .

A committee that should be made up of seven commissioners, although today Morena He has it at only four because he has refused to name those who fill the vacancies that have occurred from 2022 to date.

The reform not only disappears the INAI, but also the transparency institutes of the federal entities.

With the reform they will vote Morena and its allies PVEM and PT, this week in the Chamber of Deputies and next week in the Senate, it will be necessary to trust in the good faith of a Secretary of State close to López Obrador so that all obligated subjects comply with their obligations regarding transparency.

And we will have to appeal to Secretary Buenrostro, and her successors in the future, to allow a government body to rule in favor of the citizen when he or she has to litigate a request for information.

The constitutional reform opens the door to the creation of a new Law on transparency, which will be designed and approved by the official majorities in Congress, and which will surely limit access to information and protect the Morenoist governments, both federal and state, journalistic and citizen investigations that seek to make contracts, tenders, cost and development of public works, acquisition of inputs (such as medicines) and contracting of services transparent.

The reform will hinder accountability, and will make the exercise of public service and the management of the people’s resources more opaque.

Furthermore, it leaves the protection of personal data in limbo, a function that the INAI had been fulfilling and that will now remain in the hands of some agency that is not specified in the opinion that the deputies will vote on.

Reform is imminent and, however, it is still worth appealing to the wisdom and responsibility of the leaders of Morena in Congress and legislators such as Senator Javier Corral, Senator Malú Micher; deputies Ricardo Monreal and Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar, former defenders of transparency and accountability in past legislatures.

There is one day left and, however, it is worth appealing to the good sense and responsibility of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has before her a new opportunity to distinguish herself from her predecessor and demonstrate that she has begun to outline the destiny of her own six-year term. .

Not disappearing the INAI and Coneval, and promoting a reform to improve them without throwing them in the trash, would be a political signal that would give respite to his government, currently overwhelmed by multiple open fronts. There is still time to reconsider.

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@shamanesco

Political Animal / @Pajaropolitico