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By KELIN DILLON

According to a new report from the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF), Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) paid 85.7 million pesos to providers for goods and services the institute’s contractors never ultimately carried out or delivered.

Discrepancies found in the ASF’s Forensic Compliance Audit 2116 of the 2022 Public Account included a 42.6 million peso payment from the INM for the incomplete installation of migrant shelters and a 30.3 million peso payment for the lease of 120 vehicles that the INM never received.

“There were no additional elements to prove that the services complied with the conditions, characteristics, specifications and agreed quantities; nor was the supervision, verification and validation of the contracted services accredited,” read the audit.

The ASF’s report went on to find that the INM mainly handed out contracts to vendors without bending due to purported security concerns – including the contract given to Grupo de Seguridad Privada Camsa, SA de CV, the company tasked with monitoring the INM’s Ciudad Juárez facility where 40 migrants died in a fire back in March 2023.

Grupo de Seguridad Privada Camsa also allegedly reported fewer employees to the Tax Administration Service (SAT) than it did to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and declared a lower annual income than it received from the INM in 2022.

Likewise, the ASF found that another contractor hired by the INM to the tune of more than half a billion pesos, Grupo Caufi, breached Mexican tax law by reporting a cumulative income on its annual tax return less than it received from its contract with the migration institute.