Mexico’s federal audit authority is examining how national and state election bodies bought goods and services over more than two decades, as part of a wider inquiry into possible irregularities in public contracting.
The Superior Audit Office of the Federation said its historical study will cover purchases from 2000 to 2025 by the National Electoral Institute, its predecessor and local electoral bodies. It will look for patterns in contracting, concentration among suppliers and possible unlawful practices involving businesses or public officials.
The announcement extends the focus beyond the recent management of the national election authority. The audit office said its work was prompted by its own intelligence gathering and analysis of information requested from the states, which it says indicated multiple historical irregularities in electoral spending.
Those are the authority’s findings at this stage, not proof that any particular person or company committed an offence. Its statement set out work in progress rather than final conclusions or a timetable for results.
Three strands of work
The historical study is one of three strands described by the audit office. A separate investigation, initiated by the authority itself, concerns irregularities in public contracts involving the national institute, its predecessor and all local electoral bodies.
The third strand is a comprehensive audit of the National Electoral Institute and of federally transferred funds spent by the local electoral bodies. The announcement did not say that every source of local election funding would be covered by that audit.
In the historical study, the office says it intends to identify and disclose patterns in purchases and supplier concentration, as well as any unlawful practices it establishes. An examination of repeated awards to a supplier is not, on its own, a finding that those awards were illegal.
The former Federal Electoral Institute, known as the IFE, preceded the current national body, the INE. Local public electoral bodies have their own role in the electoral system. The announced scope spans institutions at different levels and periods; not every body existed throughout the entire period under review.
In a separate presentation to lawmakers on 30 October, the head of the audit office, Aureliano Hernández, said two business groups had accumulated 8.87 billion pesos in operations with various public bodies between 2014 and 2026. He said 3.79 billion pesos of that total related to local electoral bodies. Those amounts describe reported operations, not a finding that the entire sum was lost or unlawfully spent.
Leadership change and separate review
The wider scrutiny follows the resignation of Guadalupe Taddei as head of the national electoral institute on 26 October, amid allegations of irregularities in contracts. Before leaving, Taddei said that rumours, leaked material and accounts circulating publicly needed to be checked for authenticity and context. Allegations are not established findings against her.
On 27 October, the institute’s general council unanimously appointed Blanca Yassahara Cruz García as interim president. The institute said she would serve until the Chamber of Deputies selected a replacement to complete the remainder of the vacant term.
Cruz has said the institute will also examine contracts and agreements from the previous administration with help from its administrative, legal and internal oversight teams. That institutional review is distinct from the federal audit office’s historical study and other work.
The institute says preparations for the 2026–27 federal electoral process will continue during the leadership transition. Cruz has pledged cooperation with oversight authorities and said significant decisions should be taken collectively by the council.
For now, the audit office has identified the bodies and periods it intends to examine. It has not published final results in the announcement, and the outcome of the investigations remains open.
Featured image: AI-generated illustration.
