Documents indicate that the payments reported last June were made to irregular companies, according to report by investigative website Animal Politico…//
In 2015, approximately 150 million pesos ($7.9 million USD) were transferred, which supposedly would be used to study diseases and other health services. But the amount was received by a group of 58 companies that said to dedicate themselves to services of commerce, construction, among other categories not related to health, according to the report.
They are, in fact, companies that do not operate in their fiscal domiciles as it could be ascertained by going to them, and among which there are already 16 officially cataloged by the Tax Administration Service (SAT) as legally constituted companies but that simulate the operations that they invoice. That is, ghost companies.
The public resources were delivered through alleged contracts awarded directly to these companies, violating legal requirements and maximum amounts established by law in that state to award contracts without bidding, according to the report.
There are also cases where the awarding mechanism is unknown, and if at least one contract was signed, as the state government has not wanted to recognize the payments, although Animal Político affirms it has copies of invoices and account statements.
On September 19, this medium provided the Secretariat of Health of Yucatan with the list of companies that had received these payments, as well as the conclusions of the journalistic investigation that the contracted companies are a ghost. At the same time it was requested that documents or proof be furnished to prove that the services contracted with these companies were carried out, and that it was done by qualified personnel.
The answer of the agency’s spokesman, Luis Vázquez, is that even when there was already previous knowledge of this subject it would be difficult to provide any position or information, since the responsible officials are already in the process of leaving the dependency due to the change of government .
The spokesperson added that it will probably be the incoming administration responsible for investigating the alleged irregularities.
When reviewing the profiles of the companies that received the payments, Animal Político was able to identify coincidences in several of them, either by shareholders or joint attorneys, by exact dates of incorporation or in the notaries that endorsed them. It is a situation similar to that which has already been presented in other ghost company networks that receive public resources, such as the one documented by this same means in the case of the management of the former governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte.
Animal Politico visited several of these companies in their fiscal domiciles. The findings will be announced in a subsequent report.
Source: Punto Medio
