4T REWARDS THE “OPAQUE KING”

This article by Obed Rosas originally appeared in the May 7th edition of Sin Embargo.

[Adrián Rubalcava Suárez, the new head of Mexico City’s Metro, the recipient of a historic increase in funding this year of 23 billion MXN, has a dark history in previous right wing governments, with many unanswered questions about his administration of finances and connections to organized criminal groups. Rubalcava’s appointment by head of government of Mexico City Clara Brugada (Morena) to head one of the most important subway systems in the world comes mere days after the publication of a letter by President Claudia Sheinbaum to Morena, which resulted in the Naitonal Council adopting strict ethical guidelines concerning accountability, honesty, nepotism and corruption. Many Morena supporters have been left wondering what could be the motive behind such an appointment. – ed]

Rubalcava failed three audits. Now they’re opening his cash box.

The Federal Superior Audit Office reported irregularities left by Adrián Rubalcava in his last year as Mayor of Cuajimalpa, a district he governed between 2012 and 2015 as Head of Delegation and to which he returned in 2018 and until 2024.

Adrián Rubalcava Suárez, the new director of the Metro, is considered by the Mexico City Government as “an experienced administrator, with great capacity for leadership and dialogue who is committed to the city and its inhabitants,” even though at least three audits carried out in the last year of his management in the Cuajimalpa Municipality reveal an opaque administration, with unresolved observations about damage to the treasury and a failure to adopt austerity measures.

The appointment of Rubalcava Suárez, a politician accused of ordering attacks against media outlets, journalists, and opposition politicians, comes just as the Metro Collective Transportation System (STCM) received a historic 23 billion pesos budget for 2025 to expand maintenance and modernization efforts.

“The new director of the Metro, Adrián Ruvalcaba, has distinguished himself as an experienced person in public administration. He is a great project manager in particular, who will help us improve the Metro, and ensure that the Metro, which for us is the heart of mobility, can advance in every way; not only in its improvement, but also in its safety and in all the challenges the Metro represents,” said Mayor Clara Brugada yesterday.

However, the incorporation of this former PRI member into a key institution like the Metro has been seen as a political favor, especially given that Adrián Rubalcava left the opposition bloc of the PRI and PAN in the last election after not being chosen as the candidate for Mayor of Mexico City. Consequently, he joined the 4T as a political operator.

The truth is that throughout his more than 20-year career in politics, he has been singled out and investigated by authorities for ordering attacks on journalists, media outlets, and political opponents, including members of his own party. Rubalcava Suárez was also implicated in various acts of physical violence and charged before the then Attorney General’s Office, now the Prosecutor’s Office, under which the Special Prosecutor’s Office was based, for his possible links to a kidnapping gang called “Los Claudios.”

Added to this are the irregularities he left behind in his last year as mayor of Cuajimalpa, a district he governed from 2012 to 2015 as head of the delegation and to which he returned in 2018 and will remain as mayor until 2024. In fact, during his entire time leading this local government, he was a member of the PRI.

In its latest Public Accounts, the Superior Audit Office of the Federation found irregularities and presumed damage to the Public Treasury regarding the use of federal resources that the Government of Mexico gives to municipal governments and mayors of Mexico City.

The most serious case occurred in the 2023 Federal Municipal Shares: In the use of these resources, the Mayor’s Office violated regulations, primarily the General Law of Government Accounting, resulting in probable damage to the Public Treasury in the amount of 201 million, 562 thousand, 125 pesos, which represented 100 percent of the audited sample. The observations determined led to the initiation of the corresponding actions.

The Mayor’s Office failed to provide accounting and budget records for expenditures, nor supporting documentation for the expenditures for the processes selected for audit, in violation of the General Law on Government Accounting.

Federal contributions are resources transferred by the Federation to the federal entities, and through them also to the municipalities and territorial divisions of Mexico City. These resources are freely administered by local governments, exercised based on local legal and regulatory frameworks, and have been auditable since 2016.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation also evaluated the financial management of the resources transferred to the Cuajimalpa Municipality through the Municipal and Territorial Demarcation Social Infrastructure Contribution Fund for 60 million 997.7 thousand pesos.

The Audit specifically detected a probable damage of 57 million 906 thousand 862.96 pesos, plus the financial returns generated from its disposal until its return to the Federal Treasury, for payments made with resources from the Fund for Contributions to Municipal Social Infrastructure and the Territorial Demarcations of the Federal District for the 2023 fiscal year for a project whose geographical location of the executed works does not correspond to the registered Basic Geostatistical Areas, so it was not possible to identify the Urban Priority Attention Zones to which the project actions correspond.

During the audit, some non-compliance was indeed detected, and it was determined that the Mayor’s Office incurred in non-compliance, mainly with the Fiscal Coordination Law, the General Law of Government Accounting, the Federal Law of Budget and Fiscal Responsibility, the Agreement issuing the Guidelines of the Fund for Contributions to Social Infrastructure, the User and Operation Manual of the Investment Matrix for Social Development, the Public Works Law of Mexico City, and the Regulations of the Public Works Law.

The irregularities also extend to the failure to implement austerity measures.

In its review of ASCM/154/23, the Superior Audit Office of Mexico City found that the Cuajimalpa de Morelos Municipality did not make any savings in items 2211 “Food Products and Beverages for People,” 2611 “Fuels, Lubricants, and Additives,” 3112 “Electric Energy,” and 3361 “Administrative Support Services, Photocopying, and Printing.” Instead, increases were recorded in fiscal year 2023 compared to previous fiscal years.

“Based on the above, it is concluded that the Cuajimalpa de Morelos Municipality did not make savings in the aforementioned items; it also failed to demonstrate that it had developed and implemented the 2023 Austerity Guidelines, which would have allowed it to streamline spending on administrative activities and restrict the use of vehicles, equipment, supplies, resources, and goods for staff or third parties; thus violating the Law on Austerity, Transparency in Remunerations, Benefits, and Use of Resources of Mexico City,” the Mexico City Audit Office observed.