Double-Dipping Discovered in Guerrero’s State University

(Acapulco, JG 26 October) Héctor Briseño of the Jornal de Guerrero reports that Gregorio Gómez García, director of the Academic Accounting and Administration Unit of the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAG), reported to his boss, University President Ascencio Villegas Arrizón, that 15 full-time faculty members were also receiving compensation and participating in the payrolls of other educational institutions. The document was leaked to the press. A few of the names were associated with the Instituto Tecnológico de Acapulco and others with high schools and even elementary schools in the Acapulco area. The discoveries were made by comparing payroll lists of the UAG with those of the state Secretary of Education.

Arturo Latabán López, controller for the Department of Education, said that this exercise, conducted with several other public entities, caused the detection of 931 jobs that were incompatible with other jobs, but held by the same person. The UAG recovered 150 job positions that were still being held in theory by persons who had died, retired or resigned, and the checks were nonetheless being paid.

A person who is on a payroll without actually having to show up for work is called “an aviator.” Political patronage is often paid by means of these guaranteed fake positions, much in the same way as corrupt city administrations and labor unions have learned to do in the United States and elsewhere. Curiously, the Presidency of the UAG is a popularly elected position, with political campaigns and all that goes with them. Thus, it is subject to the same abuses as can be found in government subdivisions, unions and others led by elected officials and staffed by their appointees. Often the "aviators" stay on the payroll much longer than the term of service of the person who put them there, and periodically they need to be cleaned out by studies such as the one recently compiled by the controller's office.