According to the Attorney General's Office , the only contract signed by Rosario Robles , the former head of the Social Development Ministry , caused an MXN $60 million damage to the federal treasury .
The contract was signed between the Sedesol and the Autonomous University of Chiapas on February 1, 2015. In the contract, both institutions established they would collaborate to implement the programs from the National Crusade Against Hunger .
The contract was mentioned by the Attorney General's Office during the initial hearing, where the institution accused Robles of improper exercise of public service because, according to the attorneys , the former official knew that both the Sedatu and Sedesol where signing irregular contracts and that those deal could damage public finances but didn't act to prevent the operations.
Robles
signed a contract for MXN $60,952,400 and according to investigations, there is evidence that shows that the Sedesol paid the full amount and abruptly declared the early termination of the contract, even when the project wasn't finished. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that shows that the University of Chiapas actually received the money.
The attorneys mentioned 27 contracts, most of them were signed Emilio Zebadúa , Rosario Robles' former senior official at Sedesol and Sedatu, and Sonia Angélica Zaragoza , the former head of Human Resources at both federal agencies.
Other contracts were signed by José Antolino Orozco Martínez, who worked at both the Sedatu and Sedesol and María del Carmen Gutiérrez Medina , who worked at the Sedatu . They both have been charged and are being investigated by the Attorney General's Office for their alleged involvement in the massive fraud known as the Estafa Maestra .
Nevertheless, both claim that their signatures were forged , that they warned Robles about the irregularities at the Sedatu and Sedesol, and Orozco Martínez declared that since 2018, she filed a lawsuit to report the frauds in both agencies.
According to Orozco Martínez and the reports from the Chief Audit Office of Mexico , the contracts were used to hire services that weren't required by the Sedatu or the Sedesol ; moreover, the companies hired didn't have the capacity to deliver those services. Therefore, the companies were ordered by the Sedatu and Sedesol to subcontract other companies.
Marcos Salvador Ibarra Infante
, another former collaborator, has also testified against Robles . According to Ibarra, Robles and several other officials met with the former head of th e Chief Audit Office of Mexico , Juan Manuel Portal. When Portal questioned Robles about the irregularities in the contracts, Robles stated that the contracts weren't illegal and abruptly left the meeting.
All the irregularities caused property damage worth over MXN $5,000 million .
Last week, the supervisory judge didn't decide whether or not Robles will be charged but there will be another hearing today, where her legal team will present evidence to prove she is innocent.
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