A group of Mexican lawmakers, businessmen and activists announced the introduction of a bill that seeks to stop corruption in public works projects through request for proposals projects.
Senators with the conservative National Action party and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party proposed the Public Works Contracts Law that seeks to increase transparency, accountability, competition, equality and efficiency in these projects.
The bill also seeks to eliminate legal exemptions and discretional areas while creating a special framework for relevant projects and restricting direct adjudication of projects.
Senator Victor Hermosillo, a Mexicali member of the National Action Party, said the measure includes provisions to create a social witness and a citizens’ participation committee that would keep their eyes in all public works projects from the starting point to its end, as well as establishing a national provider list.
Hermosillo, who is a member of the Urban Development and Territorial Ordering Commission, said the bill is part of a second-generation of instruments launched within the National Anti-Corruption System.
Lawmakers look with the bill to put an end to one of the illegal financing sources to politicians that corruption in public works contracts has been for decades.
The bill was sent to three senatorial commissions.
Armed men, alleged robbers arrested
Three men and a woman were arrested Thursday in separate incidentes in possession of imitation guns and under charges of robbery, said the Municipal Public Safety Department.
Authorities said at 4:35 p.m. police agents arrested Andrés “Doe,” 29 and Román “Do3,” 34, at Reforma Avenue and Guillermo Prieto Street in downtown.
The men were observing inside a parked vehicle.
The men were in possession of two imitation firearms, a knife, a hand-made knife, gloves, masks and tools to open doors.
At 3:54 p.m. a robbery was reported at Dulcería Primavera, located at Río Culiacán Street and Mariano Matamoros Street at Colonia Independencia neighborhood.
A 70-year-old woman told police officers two men and a woman entered the business and the lady brandished a knife to demand money.
The victim began yelling and the suspects left the scene, the police said.
Police agents found the woman blocks ahead in possession of a knife.
At 9:30 p.m. another robbery was reported at the Oxxo convenience store located at Tetela Avenue and Mosaicos Street at Fraccionamiento Valle de Puebla in southeastern Mexicali.
Two male employees told police agents a man entered the store with a machete and threatened them.
The suspect attempted to leave the scene along with 1,180 pesos or $58.
However, the employees were able to fight with the suspect.
Police officers arrived at the scene while the fighting was ongoing, authorities said.
All four individuals were transported to the police headquarters.
Hundreds of policemen fired
Around 600 law enforcement officials have been let go since 2013 for flunking police officer examinations, said the state Secretary of Public Safety Daniel De La Rosa.
The agency has applied over 20,000 psychological, physical and toxicological tests to police officers, of whom just the hundreds named above did not pass and have been fired.
“Building a safer state through the strengthening of our police institutions in the state has been the goal of the constant evaluations,” he said.
De La Rosa added that constant training has also improved police performance.
The agency has also approached city officials to reinforce internal control measures at the local level, he said.
Specialist criticizes education methods
A Chilean expert in education told Mexicali officials and teachers to stimulate student creativity and critical thinking, as well as to include gender perspectives and rescue the pillars of models proposed by the United Nations and promote human being integrity.
Author Carlos Díaz Marchant, who holds a Masters Degree and a Doctoral Degree from Chile’s Catholic University was the main speaker of the “Re-founding School” conference held Thursday in Mexicali.
The conference was organized by Mexico’s federal and state’s governments.
Díaz Marchant said it is unbelievable teaching in Latin America is still based on questionnaires, forcing students to memorialize history content and given individuals learn today in a different manner compared to the used methodology at classrooms.
He proposed teachers and authorities to transform school by questioning reality, teach students how to think instead of repeating facts, have a closer treat to students, act according to reality and rescue national context to weigh more own traditions compared to the foreign ones in order to promote knowledge of roots, culture and identity.
