The Commission on the Interior and Population, of the Chamber of Deputiesapproved the reform that empowers the Public Function Secretary (SFP) to contract goods and services, and reduces internal control bodies.
The opinion, which was approved with 20 votes in favor and 18 against, according to the opposition legislators, could go up to the plenary session this Tuesday.
At the meeting, Pablo Amilcar Sandovaldeputy of Brunette, explained that the Organic Reform of the Federal Public Administration will strengthen the organic legal framework of the administration and finance units, the operation design of the Internal Control Bodies and the Contracting and Purchasing policy. In addition to transferring, from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit to the SFP, the power to contract goods and services in the public sector.
Juan Ramiro Romero, from Morena, affirmed that “little corresponds to the Secretariat of collection and public spending to deal with purchases, acquisitions, tenders and that inevitable procedure to provide inputs to the Government so that it can function”.
Members of the National Action Party bench criticized that the Civil Service cannot have the functions of judge and party, because its main objective is monitor the correct use of resources; in addition, that they are “concerned” that there could be opaque purchases in the future.
Maria Elena Pérez-Jaén mentioned that the reform would have implications such as: giving the Ministry of Public Administration complete control, management, operation and organization of the administration and finance units of parastatal entities and decentralized bodies; the holders – of the first and second hierarchical level immediately below – in said units will be directly appointed.
The foregoing, he said, implies that the SFP is the one who controls the exercise of the resources in the dependencies, parastatal entities and decentralized bodies, at the same time that it would become judge and party, regarding the exercise of the resources.
He said that the fact that the SFP has both functions does not lead to a better execution of resources. On the other hand, he mentioned that reducing the internal control bodies “is counterproductive with the activities and functions that are intended to be transferred to the Secretariat of the Function, such as: acting as a consolidating area in the procurement procedures for goods and services of all the federal public administration.
“The proposed reform has deficiencies that reduce the legal certainty of the acquisition procedures, since the consolidation of certain goods and services requires highly specialized technical knowledge. Therefore, the Ministry of Public Administration must have the personnel that has this knowledge”, denounced the deputy.
For his part, Juan Carlos Maturino, commented that in the BREAD they view with concern the control of the Government Procurement System that will be in charge of the SFP and questioned that the ruling does not favor the role of the Public Function in terms of purchases of this type. Well, government purchases favor, through direct allocation, the companies determined by the SFP; Therefore, they observe that purchases with opacity could occur in the future.
