NAIM Cancellation Cost Overrun Still Generates Uncertainty

The Superior Auditor of the Federation (ASF) has once again created uncertainty after the temporary dismissal of Agustín Caso, who was responsible for the report on the cost overrun of NAIM’s cancellation, which included “methodological errors.” According to the ASF, it is not yet possible to determine the definitive cost of NAIM’s cancellation due to the complexity of the current situation. “The institute has a figure, but we are going to review it with Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México (GACM),” stated Gerardo Lozano Dubernard, the auditor in charge of correcting the errors presented a few days ago.

The ASF Oversight Commission of the Chamber of Deputies has summoned Agustín Caso to explain the accusations made against him both by members of MORENA and by President López Obrador himself. According to Animal Político, GACM received the results of the audit in December 2019. The data was verified in January 2020 but as of a few days ago, no errors in the report have been pointed out.

Tizoc Villalobos Ruiz, General Director of the Performance Audit of Budgetary Programs, explained to Animal Político the steps that the NAIM performance audit followed. He detailed that GACM knew it would be audited since July 2019. On Dec. 15 of that year, the entity received the results and from then on had ten working days to issue any observations. Likewise, the auditors had a meeting with GACM on Jan. 12, 2020. The report was delivered to the Chamber of Deputies on Feb. 20. Two days later, President López Obrador said during his morning conference that the audit was wrong.

David Colmenares, head of the ASF, told La Silla Roja that no one pressured him to recognize the error. “It was a mistake. We will be held accountable and pay for it. We found errors and the institute will point them out in the near future by comparing the calculation methods in both cases and considering the observations of the airport agency itself,” said Colmenares.