In Mexico 21.5 billion dollars unaccounted during ex-president Felipe Calderon tenure

In Mexico, almost half of people live below the poverty line. State programs are helping 6 million families throughout the country with monthly subsidies. Yet in the year 2012 alone, 85 million dollars disappeared from the accounts of the ministry of social development, the one charged with delivering welfare money to the poorest.
The Federal Audit administration issued its yearly report detailing all the public expenses that had been unaccounted for ; while the numbers are worrisome, the impunity that follows them is even worse, as this member of parliament admits. Kamel ATHIE, member of parliament (centre-right) The people at fault for these cases of misuse have not been punished. We still haven’t solved the cases of misuse for the 7 previous years of public administration. During ex-president Felipe Calderon’s administration, from 2006 to 2012, 21,5 billion dollars vanished from the State’s coffers. The money that is missing in Mexico’s public accounts is the equivalent of Bolivia’s GDP. But the mechanisms of transparency did improve over the last 20 years. If the misuse of public funds has always been common in Mexico, the difference is that now, Mexican people do know about it. The first law on transparency was implemented in 2002. Before that, there was no way for Mexican citizens to know how tax revenue was being spent. Members of parliament also point out that not all the missing money was necessarily stolen : discrepancies in government accounts could be caused by bad bookkeeping or failure to report transfers to different State programs. But they all agree that Mexico faces a long fight against corruption.