Political View: Elm Pears | Jorge Alcocer V.

Jorge Alcocer V.

This week the Chamber of Deputies advanced the legislative process to approve the initiative to reform the Organic Law on Federal Public Administration (LO), presented by President Claudia Sheinbaum. The Legislature traditionally gives the new president the honor of approving such a proposal in its language. These are the adjustments he proposes to the structure of the government he will lead, according to his specific vision and project.

However, in this case, the presidential initiative has serious problems both in form and in substance, which required its detailed consideration.

Let’s start with grammar and syntax. I’d like to think that the President didn’t read what she signed, because if she had read it, she would have at least asked that the language be respected.

The “organic law” contains definitions on two issues: the structure of the regulated public entity, in this case the Federal Public Administration, and the powers that each of its parts will have to carry out the tasks assigned to them by the law itself. For example: Article 2 of the above-mentioned law determines that “for the management of administrative affairs entrusted to the executive power of the Union, the federal public administration will depend on the following persons: I. Secretaries of State; II, Legal Department and III. Coordinated energy regulatory bodies referred to in the eighth paragraph of Article 28 of the Constitution.” The President’s initiative does not change Article 2 of the Law.

But it turns out that another initiative of constitutional rank, in the process of approval, proposes the disappearance of 7 autonomous bodies, including those mentioned in Section III of Article 2 of the aforementioned Energy Regulatory Law (CRE) and the National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH). In addition, at the initiative of the President, it is proposed to amend Article 26 by changing the word “dependents” to “secretaries”, thereby leaving the Legal Department in limbo and introducing an unusual novelty: the creation of a secretariat called “agency”. It could be innovation. But, most likely, this was a careless decision made at the last minute: the Digital Agency was not conceived as a secretariat, but as a dependent division of the same rank as the Legal Department. Instead of making a good adjustment, they took a shortcut: there will be a secretariat called an agency. Problem (poorly) solved.

After reading the initiative, I came to the conclusion that the method of preparing it was to allow each secretary to serve with his own spoon, some did it with a large spoon. This is not the biggest problem. Since there was no overall overview of the initiative, Consequently, there is a lot of duplication between the various secretariats. For example, between government and public safety, between the latter and SEDENA, between the Treasury and what will now be called “Anti-Corruption and Good Government” (civil service as it is still called), between education and the new Science between health and IMSS-well-being. The secretariat called “Digital Agency” is invading the areas of competence of other secretariats. The two new ones still don’t exist. “Science and Women” will begin to fulfill its functions no earlier than January 2025.

There are a number of changes that are cause for concern. One of them is the storage, storage and use of each person’s registration data, which until today was the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the National Population Register. The President’s initiative aims to ensure that the Digital Agency can access and manage this data and share it with any other government department, including the military and the Treasury. No less alarming is the fact that the Secretariat of Security has been given powers, at the level of the Constitution and the law, that until now have remained with the Ministry of State and the civilian police. The militarization of the National Guard results in duplication of efforts between SEDENA and the Ministry of Public Security. This will end badly.

A few months ago, former President López Obrador and his party amended the law to transfer the National Guard to SEDENA. The court found it unconstitutional and invalidated it. This is captured in the digital version of LOAPF. Despite this, the Presidential initiative regarding SEDENA was omitted. I’m guessing the Law Department’s interpretation of this is that if the Constitution was reformed to place the National Guard under SEDENA, that would overrule the Court’s decision. This is wrong.

The initiative I am mentioning is the first manufacturing initiative of the new government. This shows the absence of anything that could be called a government strategy.

The hypothesis that the scientist would put the stamp of efficiency and rationality on the government apparatus was wrong. The hallmarks of Claudia Sheinbaum’s first major initiative are improvisation, carelessness and disorder. Expecting the ruling bloc in Congress to correct these mistakes is asking for something. And if you give them, it turns out worse.

P.S: The re-election of Rosario Piedra as head of the CNDH is proof that you can always go lower.

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