lambertstrether's diary uncovers an exceedingly nasty story, well worth the read.
In Mexico, we've got it all. All the plays in the playbook. The rush to declare a victor before the votes are counted, the partisan software company--and voting software that's proven to be hackable. This diary is a cleaned-up version of a translation I did on the fly of
an article he cited, over there.
Kudos to mariachimama for help with obscure legal Mexican Spanish.
Zavala admits his companies got PEMEX contracts
* Documented in Compranet
* Ten [contracts] were for Meta Data and one was for Hildebrado Inc.
ROBERTO GONZALEZ AMADOR, ROBERTO GARDUÑO Y FABIOLA MARTINEZ
Diego Zavala Foto Guillermo Sologuren
Diego Hildebrando Zavala Gomez del Campo admitted yesterday that their companies obtained contracts from Mexican Petroleum (PEMEX) while his brother-in-law, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, current presidential candidate of the Party of National Action (PAN), was holder of the Secretariat of Energy, a position he occupied from September of 2003 to May of 2004.
Zavala Gómez del Campo, he of the state petroleum company, had insistently denied the contracts with PEMEX, but they are documented in the service of Compranet acquisitions, a division of the Secretariat of Public Accountability (SFP).
Diego Zavala, according to Compranet's information, obtained 11 contracts for two of his companies: 10 of them for Meta Data SA de CV in October of 2003, a month after his brother-in-law entered the cabinet of president Vicente Fox, and another one more in January of 2004, in favor of Hildebrando SA of CV, the company founded by the two brothers in August of 1986.
Meta Data SA CV got ten contracts from Mexican Petroleum, all via direct awarding - it is to say, without bidding and concluded the same day, the 7 of November of 2003, according to Compranet's information. Goal Data, Felipe Calderón his brother-in-law's company, sold PEMEX, according to the same source, licensed software and training courses.
In a press conference yesterday, Diego Zavala declared yesterday, that Hildebrando SA CV acquired Meta Data SA CV in October of 2003.
Questioned, he admitted, while he was the owner, Meta Data SA CV got Mexican Petroleum contracts. Nevertheless, he said there were "only five" and were merely "renewals" of services the company already provided to PEMEX, before he was the owner.
The documents in possession of this newspaper, contributed by the Party of the Democratic Revolution, establish the following sequence: Diego Hildebrando Zavala bought Meta Data SA CV in October of 2003; a month before, his brother-in-law, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa had been named secretary of Energy, and in November of that same year, that is to say, when had owned Goal Data for one day, he received 10 contracts from PEMEX.
The 10 contracts are clearly direct, and, according to Compranet's data, are not renewals. The value of the 10 contracts is 1,030,976 pesos.
At last night's, press conference, Diego Zavala was quizzed on the contracts that Goal Data received from PEMEX while Felipe Calderón was the Secretary of Energy. He said only five renewal contracts exist "They were renewed under Article 41 of the Law of Acquisitions". He was accompanied by its brother, Juan Ignacio Zavala, spokesman for Calderón Hinojosa.
He went on to state all the government work is done by open bid. Compranet's data says the 10 contracts were "awarded".
Diego Zavala called this press conference to deny the testimony of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, vis-à-vis receiving preferential treatment of the government, of to have elevated the volume of his business with Calderón's appointment to the cabinet in September of 2003, and tax evasion. After reporters confronted him, showing documents supporting the allegations, last night he said he would post documents on http://www.hildebrando.com.mx . Later he said that he would do it "over the weekend".
Sitting among the reporters was a man who signaled Diego Zavala on which questions to answer and which to evade. Until last Wednesday, Zavala denied receiving contracts from PEMEX while Calderón was Secretary of Energy. The state company affirms that position.
The government-owned [PEMEX] reveals on January 2, 2004, the company Hildebrando SA CV received a contract of 50,000 dollars or 564,570 pesos from PMI Comercio International, PEMEX's joint-stock company to for external crude oil sales. The partner is PEMEX.
Yesterday, the PEMEX spokesman, Homero Niño de Rivera, sent a letter to this newspaper in which he describes as "totally false" the information that Hildebrando CV had ever received a single contract during the time that Calderón was Secretary of Energy.
When [the spokesman] was informed by the La Jornada of the existence of contract CIM-DA-003-04, between PMI and SA Hildebrando CV, he said that "our system does not track renewals". Later, by telephone, he confirmed the veracity of the contract.
In the press conference, interrogated on this point, Diego Zavala indicated that the contract between his company and PMI Comercio, during the time in which Calderón was secretary of Energy, "is a fact".
Meta Data, Zavala Gomez's company, isn't exactly transparent in its corporate dealings, according to this newspaper's sources.
Despite Wednesday's media offensive that sent the "panismo" [PAN dittoheads] to clear the names of the Zavala family, and Felipe Calderón, this newspaper uncovered this [interesting factoid]. On 5 January, the Secretariat of the Public Accountability (think our GAO) issued a three month disqualification to Meta Data SA, for fiscal irresponsibility and deceiving the National School of Technical Professional Education (Conalep).
On January 5, in the Official Newspaper of the Federation, in the section for Secretariat of the Public Accountability, this branch of government "communicates to the dependencies, General Office of the judge advocate general of the Republic and organizations of the Federal Public Administration, as well as to the federal organizations, they must abstain from accepting proposals or to honor contracts with Meta Data"
In that publication - and also on its website, the Secretariat of the Public Accountability shows Conalep "gave Meta Data SA CV contract number CAS-219/202, an amount not to exceed 3 thousand dollars, by Public Bid the International Number 11125001-022-02, for client-server and Internet software.
Conalep was shocked.
"The contract with the National College of Professional and Technical Education was entered into under false pretenses, and under protest. It was supposed to be a fulfillment of current obligations, and is in violation of [Mexican law governing public sector contracts]
The three month suspension began on January 6 and ended on 6 April of this year.
Diego Zavala was asked about the suspension in the press conference. Without offering precise information, he commented that the sanction "that may have been a previous contract before Meta Data was acquired by Hildebrando SA CV ''. Signaling with head movements, he looked for instructions from the Man in the Crowd of Reporters [previously mentioned], so he dodged the question in the Public Form.
In the conference, Diego Zavala said that the only business address of his company is Paseo de la Reforma, in Mexico City. According to Compranet's information, it's obvious Hildebrando CV's only business address is on "Durengo", a nonexistent street in the Roma suburb of Mexico City.
Diego Zavala reported Hildebrando SA CV earned, between 2001 and 2005, income of 1,709,800 pesos. The income grew to a total of 92,900,000 pesos in 2002 and to 678,000,000 in 2005.
According to the information offered to the reporters, 16.4% of income derives from "governments"; 41.3% from exports, and 42.4 % from the private sector. When asked what percentage was from the federal government, he said he didn't have the information at hand.