In the last few weeks, some irregularities have been revealed about how public funds were managed by the state of Baja California during the administration of ex-Governor Jaime Bonilla Valdez. Damages, according to the first report by the Federal Superior Audit (ASF), could go all the way up to 200 million pesos.

Subsequently, Semanario Zeta reported the damages in non-verified bills, payments made to non-enrolled personnel and even non-registered payrolls, as well as overpricing in public works made, could go all the way up to 1,105 million pesos.

This is not all, however, as on March 4, 2022, the Government of Baja California submitted criminal charges due to funds embezzlement that go all the way up to 12,000 million pesos. This is part of the contract that was made between the Jaime Bonilla administration and Next Energy for a photovoltaic energy plant.

During a press conference, led by judicial councilor, Juan José Pon, and Secretary of the Treasury, Marco Moreno Mexia, they confirmed that a criminal charge had been presented to the General State Prosecutor against the public officials and ex-officials for abuse of power.

“Having this concrete evidence of financial damages to public funds, the state government, through the teams involved in this case, have begun a series of legal actions in order to contain negative effects… this is why a criminal charge was made,” stated Marco Antonio Moreno Mexia.

This allows a cancellation of the contract that the previous administration signed of a trust to Next Energy, which has charged its first bill to the Baja California government for 123,000 million pesos “accepting the repayment of this investment.”

“Regarding this outlook, the state government has begun a series of legal procedures and actions to contain the effect of this payment,” Moreno Mexia said in the conference, and added that the Governor has instructed that measures should be followed so that an investment repayment is not given considering nothing has been built.

On the other hand, Juan José Pon, judicial councilor, stated that this project hasn’t begun, but that it has charged millions. It is 200% more expensive than what a project of this magnitude should cost. At the same time, he stated that the contract was unjust, since it made it mandatory to pay 12,000 million pesos to the company even if the company was unable to obtain the necessary permits to create its plant.

It should be noted that it was in June 2021 when the photovoltaic plant’s construction was announced in Mexicali, Baja California, and the idea was that it would provide energy to the Colorado River-Tijuana Aqueduct. According to Bonilla this “would give Baja California energy sovereignty”. This, however, stopped because the state government pointed out that the contract had “beneficial” conditions.

Lastly, the Secretary and the councilor agreed that the point was not to cancel the investment and affecting society, but protecting public finances to allocate resources to substantial actions that are the priority for the Marina del Pilar administration. They also stated that no corruption will be allowed as transparency is being given a space in the public agenda.

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