The Association of Capital Cities of Mexico (ACCM) held its Fifth Working Session to analyze from different perspectives the mechanisms to strengthen public policies on transparency, accountability and combating corruption, which are cornerstones to promote more and better democratic practices in municipalities.
At the Municipal Palace of Chihuahua, the President of the ACCM and Mayor of Merida, Renan Barrera Concha, and the Municipal President of Chihuahua, Marco Bonilla Mendoza, gave the opening messages of the work tables highlighting the importance of turning municipalities into entities where transparency and the eradication of corruption prevail.
This fifth meeting was attended by Elía Margarita Moreno González, Mayor of Colima and ACCM Treasurer; Eduardo Rivera Pérez, Mayor of Puebla; Jorge Corichi Fragoso, Mayor of Tlaxcala; José Antonio Ochoa Rodríguez, Mayor of Durango; and Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, Mayor of Monterrey.
In his message inaugurating the work session, Barrera Concha emphasized that the work tables to be held on November 24 and 25 will concentrate proposals to strengthen practices in transparency, accountability and democratic culture in municipal bodies.
“In the work tables, the importance of the Transparency units and the need to establish and improve the mechanisms that allow an Open Government, that society has a quick consultation of the information it requests on the performance of the entire Municipal Public Administration”, he expressed.
On this first day of work, the mayors of the ACCM met at the Government Palace of Chihuahua with the state governor María Eugenia Campos Galván, to present the work that the association has carried out collegially to strengthen the municipal vision.
Afterwards, the mayors went to the Chihuahua Municipal Palace to inaugurate the work tables with the heads of the transparency and comptrollership units.
In his opening message, Barrera Concha added that “from the vision of Capital Cities, the fight against corruption drives us to continue our strategies to keep open the implementation of internal control systems in all the departments of our city councils, with audit programs for the different administrative work units of ethics and integrity, promoting the practice of values in the activities of public servants.
He also stressed that it is necessary to promote the opening of spaces for governance together with non-governmental organizations, foundations, companies, schools and educational institutions, allowing citizens to become directly involved in the planning of public policies and actions in favor of our municipalities and their inhabitants.
For his part, Bonilla Mendoza emphasized that ethical practices should be part of the working practices within the administrations, thus contributing to generate greater certainty among citizens about the good use of public resources and a municipal management based on serving the inhabitants where equitable and egalitarian service for all prevails.
Among the activities was the conference on Open Government given by María del Carmen Nava Polina, citizen commissioner of InfoCDMX. Subsequently, the conference “Mechanisms for Citizen Participation in the Fight against Corruption” was given by José Roldán Xopa, expert in municipal anti-corruption.
It should be noted that these working groups are the result of months of work between the transparency and comptroller teams of the municipalities that make up the group, which prepared the respective analyses to learn about the challenges and obstacles that exist to address these issues in the municipalities.
The last item on the work agenda was the presentation of the conclusions of the Transparency and Accountability Roundtable and the presentation of the Transparency and Accountability Agenda, which will be the basis for preparing the document that will establish the objectives and commitments that the mayors will have to develop these issues in their municipalities.
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