Beyond the efficiency declared in the contracting and payment of the contingent loan that rescued the state finances, even granting that Quirino Ordaz incurred in irregularities by having to pay for works in advance and not to leave the “guardadito” so that Rocha might operate in the first months of the six-year term, the issue leads in all its edges to the fact that, whatever it may have been, the public matter is completely translucent before the citizen eye.
Citizen attention was drawn to the fact that Governor Rubén Rocha Moya resorted to three loans contracted with private banks for a total of 1.5 billion pesos in December to meet obligations for salaries and benefits to personnel, as well as administrative expenses. But the surprise would come 15 days later when the state president announced that he had paid the loans and would start fiscal year 2022 with zero debts.
Because in matters of public finance difficulties there are few happy endings, except for the joy of the bureaucrats to receive their salaries on time, the history of credit and prompt payment is far from being inscribed in legends of aladdins and wonderful lamps. In itself, the setback of a government without money is painful, what to say regarding borrowing without any guarantee other than the word of an incipient regime.
Rocha had attributed the budget deficit to the fact that his predecessor in office, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, left his public coffers empty and instead proceeded to pay in advance 13 works that were not finished, favoring 11 companies with 109 million pesos. He reinforced with the statement that the Mazatlan politician also started other works without leaving the resources to pay for them.
This closing situation of 2021 seemed the beginning of the narrative of claims to the PRI Governor by the Morenista who came to the head of the state Executive Power offering a too smooth transition to the one who left office. But no, what ended up being the demand for transparency and anti-corruption shielding both for those who left and for those who arrived, and they result in accountability being essential, or that the intervention of the audit, investigation and sanction do the work that corresponds to them, without half measures or simulations in possible acts that damage the state treasury.
Beyond the efficiency declared in the contracting and payment of the contingent loan that rescued the state finances, even granting that Quirino Ordaz incurred in irregularities by having to pay for works in advance and not to leave the “guardadito” so that Rocha might operate in the first months of the six-year term, the issue leads in all its edges to the fact that, whatever it may have been, the public matter is completely translucent before the citizen eye.
To the government of Rocha Moya, which adheres to the presidential maxim of “do not lie, do not steal, do not betray”, transparency is like water to fish and from the inaugural stage of the Fourth Transformation in Sinaloa it is obliged to put its acts, public policies and management of the treasury in the most transparent display case possible. The credit acquired to remedy the conclusive part of 2021 should be the starting point.
The amount and the stipulated interests are already known, the latter for 3 million 340 thousand pesos, however, it is necessary to clarify the form and origin of the payment. The little that is known is that resources came from the Federation, although it is not specified whether it was for the total amount or the State Government assumed a part and, if so, from where it obtained the money in the context of deficit public finances. . Are items from fiscal year 2022 committed? Will or will this not have an impact on future spending? Where can the common citizen consult the documents that support the loan, the interests and the origin of the resource?
Obviously, this corresponds to those public servants in whom the current Governor placed the trust in the management of state finances. Another question to be clarified has to do with the regulations established by the National Fiscal Coordination System in the sense that in the event of any gap in income-expenditures, state governments can resort to credits only if they are intended for social development, not current spending. In other words, public debt is legitimate when higher income is used to meet the immediate demands of the governed, not to pay payrolls or cover current spending commitments.
This is where the matter falls within the scope of Enrique Díaz Vega, Secretary of Administration and Finance, a financial expert in the private sector who is now stuck in the state administration and who will carry the burden of avoiding public debt, putting dams to the irregular use of the treasury, and plan republican austerity. And how is it evaluated in the first test, which consisted of indebtedness, which under no circumstances should be the principle of practices where indiscriminate credit compromises future income?
In short, it is clear that in the event of a treasury without funds, Rocha Moya and Díaz Vega would be forced to make use of the available possibilities, otherwise they would have faced a social conflict by failing to pay salaries and bonuses to state government workers. . That is not up for discussion, but rather the question of whether the loan and settlement process was adjusted to the transparency standards as a sign of a six-year term that will not fall into the loss of credibility that derives from erratic, opaque or irregular handling of the money that belongs to the town.
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