Mexico: Senate Agrees To Ban Federal Budget's Secret Accounts

Mexico's Senate unanimously approved a reform to Article 74 of the Constitution, which authorized secret allocations within the Federal budget. 

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Senators pointed out that these accounts were used to make unverified expenditures and to promote acts of corruption.

Constitutional Commission President Marti Batres advocated "expressly" prohibiting these accounts to avoid setbacks on the matter in the future. 

The reform was passed with 94 favorable votes and was submitted to local congresses to continue the debate.

The 1917 Mexican constitution attributed to the President of the Republic the power to authorize the use of secret fiscal items.

So did, for example, the governments of Luis Echeverria (1970-1976) and Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994), whose corruption scandals were completely uncovered after decades.

The Senate also considered it necessary to promote new conceptions for resource allocations to guarantee transparency and effective auditing.