Mexicali, February 18.- Former Mexicali mayor Gustavo Sánchez received 108 observations from the Supreme Audit Body of the State Congress, resulting in the rejection of his 2017, 2018, and 2019 public accounts.
Many of the observations are sensitive, such as the purchase of unusable patrol cars, the payment of bonuses not provided for by law, projects that were more than double the cost, the lack of public bidding, workers who should have been pensioned but were instead assigned union commissions, legal or unpaid withholdings, and poorly executed projects.
For his part, Treasurer Roger Sosa Alaffita stated that the City Council had already been notified of the public accounts and affirmed that Congress had changed the approval standard, which resulted in their rejection.
He indicated that the observations cover many topics, including outstanding debts and a lack of bidding for projects.
Sosa Alaffita said that many of these issues are currently being addressed by the treasury to ensure they are not subject to the same rules in the future.
In his defense, former mayor Gustavo Sánchez stated that he led a responsible administration in the management of resources and that the observations are being reviewed.
2017: Non-existent taxes, commissions and settlements
With 40 observations from the Oversight Body, the 2017 public accounts—Gustavo Sánchez's first full year—were rejected by Congress; some of these will have to be addressed by the Municipal Audit Office itself.
According to documents in the possession of this media outlet, it was found that at least one million pesos should have been collected on at least six properties, and the corresponding property tax payment should have been issued for 43,000 pesos, 843,000 pesos for property tax arrears, and 133,000 pesos for sports promotion tax.
