State Comptroller Finds Defalcation of 10 Billion Pesos

(Chilpancingo, JG 7 July) The Comptroller (Auditor) of the State of Guerrero, Julio César Hernández Martínez, informs that his office has determined that $10,465,000,000 pesos disappeared from public funds in four state entities during the mandates of former governors Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo and René Juárez Cisneros. Most of the money was siphoned out of the budgets of the State Education Department and the State Health Department. The comptroller has filed formal complaints with the Federal Accounting Office and other federal entities.

In a press conference, Hernández Martínez personally named the ex-secretaries of the affected agencies and their chief administrators. The audit was conducted over two months, with the assistance of the Federal District office of Price-Waterhouse. The period audited covered 11 years, to March 31, 2011. Most of the defalcations were attributed to the six-year mandate of Governor Torreblanca Galindo, which ended on March 31 of this year.

In the Department of Education alone, $6,122,277,268 pesos were unaccounted for in general budget categories and another $1,964,550,377 in the payroll. In the Department of Health, the auditors found anomalies amounting to $2,062,340,397 in general budget categories. They also investigated the purchase of a helicopter used by the governor personally and a light aircraft, both with $45 million pesos from a health insurance fund.

The comptroller commented that the federal authorities will review the audit and perform further investigation, as they see fit, to determine whether legal sanctions should be imposed on any individuals who worked in the agencies during the term of Governor Torreblanca Galindo.