Mexico City – President Felipe Calderon’s top anti-corruption official on Saturday announced a six point plan to tackle the bribes, kick backs and robbing of government coffers that continue to plague Mexico.
Secretary German Martinez, of the Public Administration Department, said the plan will include anti-corruption education programs, improved transparency and a uniform system to revise spending in all government departments.
He also announced he has signed a measure banning government officials from receiving official gifts worth more than US$50 (euro35) in the run up to the Christmas period.
“Corruption is an insult to the poorest Mexicans,” Martinez said in a news conference. “It is an issue of equality and as such it is a priority issue for President Calderon.” Mexicans consider that the rot of corruption continues to be one of the nation’s worst problems, despite periodical anti-corruption drives.
A global survey released this week by the Berlin-based Transparency International found 28 percent of Mexicans said somebody in their house had paid a bribe within the last year, the joint worst result in Latin America along with Bolivia.
In the United States, 2 percent of respondents to the survey said somebody in their household had paid a bribe.
Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, took office earlier this month in a ceremony that was marred by street protests and fist fights by lawmakers in Congress. His opponents accuse him of conspiring with outgoing President Vicente Fox to rob the July election from leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who claims to represent the millions of poor Mexicans against the corrupt rich.
Calderon has vowed to unify the divided nation. In his first week in office, he has adopted several of his opponent’s leftist proposals, cutting his salary by 10 percent and starting a program to help the 100 poorest towns and villages in the nation.
La corrupci Don es un insulto a los mexicanos m Das pobres. Es un asunto de igualdad. Y porque es un asunto de igualdad, es un asunto prioritario para el Presidente Calder Don.
