The trust fund dilemma

The case of the trust fund created by Morena , to support the victims of the September 2017 earthquake , for which th e INE fined the party , brings up, once again, a topic often up for debate: the use of trust funds.

The INE's accusations against MORENA for the movements made in the bank account is a sui generis case. The resources didn't come from public funds , but the institute claims that the money was used to benefit the party that called for the creation of the trust fund. The virtual President-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador , has said that the accusations raise unjustified corruption suspicions against his movement because it has never been proven that the money was deviated for non-altruistic purposes. It may take months before the authority has all the elements to explain the complexity of the case.

What is undeniable is that the polemic brings up the topic of the proliferation of private trust funds to administer money for matters of public interest to light. In the electoral field, even if the tribunals favor López Obrador, it's important to determine if from now on it will be allowed that parties or their members can create these legal bodies for altruistic purposes in the future, although their adversaries see them as an act with a political aim , in the event that this happens again in the middle of a campaign.

Something that should also be discussed is, while it's different it is still similar, other cases where public organisms like the Finance Secretariat, the Chamber of Deputies, syndicates, states governments, local governments and autonomous institutions , that use trust funds to have free room for maneuver to use public funds . In the best-case scenario, it's understood that it has the aim to speed up the money distribution, but as the saying goes: “even the just will sin, given the chance”.

As EL UNIVERSAL published last May , in the opinion of experts, the existence of hundreds of trust funds in Mexico is mostly publicly unknown, they're considered as the government's black boxes : very little accountability , most of them use the bank and fiduciary secret to avoid scrutiny.

Since 2014 the Superior Audit Office of the Federation has warned about the use of trust funds . Therefore, these mechanisms , convenient in some cases, must be regulated when they involve public funds or when they're involved in political campaigns . This way, it won't be subjected to opinion when someone breaks the law.

gm