Experts worldwide have stated that the Dos Bocas project is not feasible. While the world turns towards obtaining clean energy, Mexico continues on the path of the archaic, the contamination of water, land, and air, without counting the harmful effects of the operation in the hands of the government due to the increase in corruption and the volatile future costs of crude oil.
MEXICO CITY (Proceso) – The Ministry of Energy issued the order for Dos Bocas to be assigned to a private affiliate of Petróleos Mexicanos. In a rush to start the refinery construction, Rocio Nahle Garcia took the turn of the public administration regulations.
Although resorting to private affiliate companies to expedite the public work contracting processes allowed the embezzlement of Petroleos Mexicanos in the cases of Fertinal and Agronitrogenados, the Ministry of Energy (Sener) ordered the oil company to resort to this modality for the construction of the Dos Bocas refinery.
Furthermore, three high-ranking Pemex officials whose bank accounts were investigated by the Attorney General’s Office in the Odebrecht case were appointed by the head of Sener, Norma Rocio Nahle Garcia, as legal representatives of PTI Infraestructura de Desarrollo, SA de CV, the Pemex subsidiary to take charge of the energy mega-project of the Fourth Transformation.
The above direct provisions of the head of the Sener ignored an analysis of the Secretariat of Public Function (SFP) that warns of the risks in terms of administrative responsibilities during the construction of the Dos Bocas refinery.
The Secretariat of Public Function warns that the use of a subsidiary to contract works and suppliers will allow the employees of Pemex Transformación Industrial (Ptri) to avoid their responsibility in case of any anomaly that may occur during the entire construction process.
For the owner of the Sener, Nahle García, the urgency of the project and the lowering of costs due to delays was more important than the risk already warned by the Public Administration.
To avoid this risk, the Sener’s head signed agreements with the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of the Ministry of Finance, with the Federal Superior Audit Office. The SFP monitors all contracts that the PTI Infraestructura de Desarrollo grants during the construction of Dos Bocas. However, the Law of Petróleos Mexicanos establishes that subsidiary companies are governed by private law.
Although the Law of Petróleos Mexicanos provides that Pemex may open productive subsidiary companies that are governed by the laws of public administration and bidding for the largest contracts for works and resources is its obligation, Article 61 also allows the oil company to constitute affiliate companies of a private nature, subject to the private law of the city or country in which they have been created and are not considered parastatal entities.
Unpunished Omissions
Therefore, the omissions and irregularities that may be registered in the contracts that PTI Infraestructura de Desarrollo enters into for the construction of Dos Bocas cannot be investigated and sanctioned the Secretariat of Public Function raised this manner to Pemex before the special regime that governs its private subsidiaries.
The analysis carried out by the SFP makes it very clear that since PTI is solely responsible for all legal actions and acts carried out to comply with its obligations and commitments under this agreement, Ptri will not be in any way responsible for the acts and omissions of PTI, nor for the actions and omissions of any contractor or supplier of PTI in charge of executing any part of (the) obligations of PTI, as established in this agreement.
Now what was exposed in its analysis by the SFP is being used judicially by two Pemex officials who were disqualified by the Public Functions to revoke the sanction imposed on them with the argument that they were managing a private affiliate of Pemex and not one of the public subsidiaries, both officials incurred in irregularities in the cases of Agronitrogenados and Fertinal.
Although the Public Function (SFP) determined that they both deceived the Board of Directors of Pemex so that the oil company would buy the fertilizer plants at a premium and in bad condition, causing losses in the millions, they defend themselves by pointing out that the Federal Law of Administrative Responsibilities cannot be applied to them.
Edgar Torres Garrido and Juan Manuel Carrera Panizzo went to the Federal Court of Administrative Justice to challenge the SFP sanctions imposed on them in 2019.
According to documents obtained by Proceso, the order to use a Pemex subsidiary in Dos Bocas was given directly by the head of Sener, who, through a letter dated February 18, 2019, informed the general director of Pemex, Octavio Romero Oropeza, that the Dos Bocas project was not assigned to a Pemex subsidiary.
“…for the creation of the new Dos Bocas refinery, I make it known to you the need to use for this project, one of the subsidiaries of Petróleos Mexicanos, this with the purpose that the administration, conduction, and organization of this macro project can flow in a more agile and organized way”, says in its central part the letter sent by Sener to the director of Pemex.
