On June 29, the Supreme Audit Office of the Federation (ASF) published the first installment of the Report on the Result of the Supreme Audit of the Public Account 2020, which included the Audit in the Bienesca program.
Some of the findings detail that support for this program was granted to 40 deceased beneficiaries, incomplete beneficiary files were kept, there were failures in coordination between the Ministry of Welfare and the National Commission for Aquaculture and Fisheries (Conapesca), and there was a lack of oversight and control mechanisms, among others.
In addition to the findings of the ASF, which are extremely relevant and whose recommendations must be taken into account to guarantee the objective of the program, there is an additional topic that reveals the lack of accountability and transparency towards citizens.
Through Fishing for Natural Cause Data, an effort has been made to monitor fishing subsidies, in particular to open the lists of beneficiaries and the analysis of how the program's resources have been distributed. It starts from the fact that facilitating access to such information and bringing it closer to interested people promotes participation and informed dialogue.
One of the red spots identified by Pescando Datos is the lack of information available to citizens and the inconsistencies they have. Although Causa Natura obtained through a request for information the list of beneficiaries of Bienesca 2020 (soon available in Pescando Datos), it includes less information than that reported by Conapesca to the ASF.
On the one hand, Causa Natura was provided with 563 fewer beneficiaries, a difference corresponding to more than 4 million pesos in the budget.
On the other hand, with regard to the Register of Fisheries and Aquaculture Producers, Causa Natura obtained, through requests for information, a list of economic units registered in the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Registry (RNPA), which could not be linked to the list of reported beneficiaries. However, the pattern described in the Audit seems to be linked to the list of beneficiaries.
The number of records and units of measurement confirms this: the one provided via request for information has 13,408 economic units while that of the ASF has 295,033 people.
In addition, the audited entity accredited that the 543 files of reviewed beneficiaries have their respective RNPA1 registration certificate. The question remains if it is another Register of producers and aquaculturists that was not made public on its open data site or shared via request for information.
With this audit, we are left with more questions than answers about the operation of Bienesca. What is clear is the urgency to improve the operation of the program and the management of information.
Advancing this task will help women fishermen to obtain more and better benefits from government support for fishing.
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