Mexico Looks The Other Way As Contractors Fleece Oil Giant Pemex
President Enrique Pena Nieto says he plans to replace the SFP with a more independent Anti-Corruption Commission. Two years into his administration, the initiative is stalled in Congress, where lawmakers are divided over the plan.
The anti-corruption initiative was part of a suite of reforms Pena Nieto announced upon taking office. The most ambitious proposal involved shaking up the energy sector and Pemex, but plunging oil prices and a series of domestic crises have complicated that agenda. Most recently, Pena Nieto, his wife and his finance minister have been mired in controversy after it emerged they had bought or used houses belonging to a government contractor in a high speed rail project.
Salvador Vega, an opposition senator and former head of the SFP, said the federal investigators inside Pemex have disciplined thousands of employees and some contractors based on their own inquiries, independent of the congressional Federal Audit Office. Ministry investigators, meanwhile, criticize the congressional auditors, saying they lack the technical expertise to understand oil contracts.
Jose Munoz, president of the lower-house committee of Congress that oversees the Federal Audit Office, says congressional audits are sound, written with the help of outside technical experts. The SFP's Pemex unit dismisses or sits on congressional audit recommendations, Munoz said, because the internal investigators are too close to the Pemex employees they're supposed to scrutinize.
A spokesman for the Federal Audit Office said the office supports the president's idea of establishing an independent sanctioning body in place of the SFP.
A Letter From Above
A contract with Unigel Quimica illustrates the challenges involved in policing Pemex.
The company, a unit of Brazilian chemical maker Unigel, received a lucrative deal from a unit of the Mexican oil giant. Pemex Petrochemicals sold Unigel a chemical called acrylonitrile at a deep discount from 2009 through 2011, according to an investigative report by the SFP. The chemical is used to make plastics.
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