Chapala Comptroller Tomás Eder Morando Sánchez has issued notifications to 31 former city hall officials to clarify irregularities detected since the government transition to the current administration occurred on October 1.
Among those called to task is former mayor and current city councilor Javier Degollado González, who refused to sign the citation presented in person on November 28 at the conclusion of the installation of the council’s Urban Development Commission on which he holds a seat.
A formal notice was delivered to his home address the following day.
In interviews with the local press, the municipality’s top auditing official indicated that observations of minor to serious anomalies have been reported by 28 new department heads.
The irregularities range from missing files and equipment to unjustified expenditures. Lost items that are on the municipality’s patrimony registry include five garbage trucks, a pickup, various desktop computers and laptops, a photocopy machine, communication radios and work tools, among others.
At the end of October, Mayor Moisés Anaya announced that the Public Works Department was unable to account for around 5.1 million pesos presumably spent on 21 projects carried out over the past three years.
Once notified, the former officials have five days to clear up matters handled under their watch, either in person or in writing. By the time the clock ran out this Wednesday, only five of them had properly resolved the anomalies in question. To guarantee their rights, Morando has not revealed the names of those involved.
After the conclusion of the revision process, if missing property is not returned or misappropriated expenditures reimbursed by the responsible parties, Morando will refer specific cases to corresponding state and federal auditors or the criminal justice system.
The Anaya government has not yet released the total amount of substantial debts inherited from the Degollado administration.
Meanwhile, Jalisco’s Auditoria Superior reports that the past government failed to file monthly public account reports for August 2017 through September 2018, nor the semester and annual summaries required under law.