Mexico Auditoría Superior de la Federación audit of INE and state electoral institute contracts, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Mexico’s Auditoría Superior de la Federación (ASF) announced this Wednesday that it will conduct an ex officio investigation into contracts signed by the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) and its predecessor, the Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE), from 2000 through 2025. In a statement shared on its social media channels, the agency said it will also carry out a comprehensive audit of the INE and all Organismos Públicos Locales Electorales (OPLE), citing irregularities in the awarding of agreements.
The ASF said the review follows its warning of “multiple historical irregularities” in the use of public resources. According to the agency, the investigation will seek to identify contracting patterns, supplier concentration and illegal practices involving business groups and public officials.
Last week, President Claudia Sheinbaum called for an audit of the INE that would include the administration of Guadalupe Taddei and earlier periods. “The request to the Auditoría Superior de la Federación is that everything be audited.
All those contracts have to be audited and made transparent, both during the period of Guadalupe Taddei and before,” she said. Sheinbaum said the review of the institute as a whole would aim to “bring everything to light.”
During the presentation of individual reports on the 2025 Public Account, ASF head Aureliano Hernández Palacios Cardel said two business groups were identified as having accumulated operations worth 8,870.3 million pesos with various public entities between 2014 and 2026. He said 3,790.3 million pesos of that amount corresponded to local electoral bodies.
Hernández Palacios Cardel added that the agency is also investigating possible barriers that create unfair competition to secure contract awards, affecting prices and conditions to the detriment of the public treasury.
