• STRATEGIC: Two members of Mexico’s Presidential assistantship office have been promoted to high posts at the country’s tax agency without any background in fiscal matters. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador defended the appointments saying integrity was more relevant.
• PATTERN: Having transitioned from political campaign jobs to strategic government positions, former Presidential assistants Javier Portugal Dorantes and Paloma Aguilar Correa are now heads of taxpayer assistance and resource management respectively at Mexico’s tax agency (SAT).
• BRIBES: “We’re cleaning up the SAT and also the customs agency. What we’re doing is promoting young people, honest people to occupy strategic, key positions. That’s where they were offering big bribes of money. That’s were everything was arranged in the past”, López Obrador said Friday.
• SALARIES: The new jobs also carried a doubling in net pay for both former aides. Facing an economic contraction this year, Mexico has a 16.2% tax to GDP ratios, one of the lowest in Latin America according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
