The Mexican government allocated 1.5 billion pesos (about $102.5 million) to support marginal municipalities in the poor southern states of Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, the Finance and Public Credit Secretariat announced Monday.
In all, some 508 municipalities will benefit under the plan, the deadline for requesting funds from which is March 15, the institution said in a communique.
The terms and requirements to gain access to the resources contained in the Infrastructure and Productivity Support Fund, or FAIP, will be published by the secretariat in the country’s Official Gazette in the coming days.
The secretariat said that all solicitations for funding must be made directly through its office and “exclusively by public servants officially authorized to do so by the city halls, without the mediation of third parties.”
The FAIP resources are federal, and “so the municipalities will have to transparently report the use and destination of same,” it said.
Keeping track of the resources will be the task of the Superior Auditing Office, the Public Operations Secretariat, the local legislatures’ auditing bodies or their equivalents and the State Government Comptroller’s Office.
The FAIP was established by President Enrique Peña Nieto on Nov. 27 to combat lack of security, impunity and corruption in Mexico after the crisis resulting from the disappearance of 43 teaching students in Guerrero on Sept. 26.
