Among other irregularities, former Tekax mayor sold an ambulance for 875,500 pesos donated to the municipality
TEKAX Yucatán (Central 9/Grupo Megamedia) – The Journalistic Investigation Unit of Grupo Megamedia/ Diario de Yucatán, has uncovered the rampant corruption that prevailed in the administration of former Tekax Yucatan mayor Josué Manancé Couoh Tzec. His administration took place amid political scandals. One of the most controversial points of Josué Manancé Couoh Tzec’s passage through the Tekax mayor’s office is the “donation” of an ambulance that was later sold by the municipal authority, according to documents.
According to public information, on Oct. 28, 2017, then PRI federal deputy Pablo Gamboa Miner delivered an ambulance donated by Pemex to the Tekax City Hall. Josué Couoh himself spread the news on social networks.
The relief unit, it was indicated on that occasion, had an automated defibrillator, sterile equipment for delivery care, stretchers, vital signs monitor, resuscitators, oxygen tanks, medicines, and solutions for cardiology and endocrinology, among other things.
The current mayor, Diego José Ávila Romero, claims that this ambulance was not delivered to the Municipality and did not show up either.
“It was said that it was donated, but there is an invoice issued by the City Hall itself for the same vehicle,” he adds. “As things do not add up, we do not know what happened there.”
In fact, among the documentation left by “doctor amor”, -Doctor Love- as Couoh Tzec was known, is an invoice issued by the Municipality for that ambulance in favor of the company PMA Advantage Consulting, S.A. de C.V.
The company, with fiscal residence in Guadalajara, Jalisco, paid 875,500 pesos that did not enter into the Municipality’s coffers.
One piece of information that calls attention is that the same invoice stipulates, in the description of the property for which the sale is being made, that it is a new ambulance produced from a “donation.”
Central 9, the Journalistic Investigation Unit of Grupo Megamedia, located PMA Advantage Consulting in the Public Registry of Commerce as a company “of environmental, consulting and waste management services.” Its original name, which changed in 2016, was Protección al Medio Ambiente Jalisco, S.A. de C.V.
That case is just one of a long list of irregularities attributed to the municipal management of Josué Couoh, who, as we have already reported, faces multiple observations from the Superior Audit Office of the State of Yucatán (ASEY) and a criminal complaint from his successor in the City Council, Diego Ávila.
To the anomalies that we have already published, we add the following:
-There were no consumption logs in the fuel sector, even though large amounts of money were spent.
-Incomplete files appeared in public works, which, moreover, did not meet the minimum requirements. Most of them do not have the signatures of the responsible officials.
-Building lease documents appeared, with payments of more than 30,000 per month and contracts with private companies whose services were not justified.
-Computers, brush cutters, closed-circuit cameras, cameras, welding machines, chainsaws, and other equipment not included in the inventory were purchased and therefore did not appear.
-Some vehicles were delivered without batteries. Others did not have the engine.
-In the service line, the vast majority without justification or approval of the Cabildo, municipal directors or their relatives are beneficiaries of acquisitions.
-Large sums were paid for construction material, but there is no evidence of these purchases’ destination. Some were made with freight payment to Pustunich, Ticul, where the former mayor owns a farm, as we have already indicated.
-The concept of “social aid” was allocated large amounts, which only in 2017 reached more than 18 million pesos. ASEY noted that there are merely lists of names, not the signatures of the alleged beneficiaries or copies of documents that identify them.
-Only in the 2017 public account observations, ASEY highlights irregularities, in general, amounting to more than 34 million.
Because of these last concepts, which were not solved, the Superior Audit Office started a few days ago a “procedure for the settlement of responsibilities” against Juana Gabriela Avila Buenfil -today the wife of “doctor amor”- and Nelson Felipe Canul López, who served as treasurer and secretary of the Commune.
Both former officials were recently summoned before the auditing authority in a hearing of evidence and allegations. Diego Ávila filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office against his predecessor.
It seems that they acted with the idea that “we’re going to leave now, take everything.” says the current Tekax mayor.
