MEXICO CITY — Gustavo de Hoyos Walther, president of the Employers Federation of Mexico (Coparmex), a chamber of commerce that represents more than 36,000 Mexican businesses, asked the Senate to approve the secondary laws creating the National Anti-Corruption System by next Saturday, when the current legislative session ends.
The president of Coparmex sent a letter to Senate President Roberto Gil Zuarth, of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and Emilio Gamboa Patrón, a senator for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), encouraging them to approve the Anti-Corruption System.
De Hoyos Walther pointed out that corruption leads to damages of about 10 percent of Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and costs businesses around 5 percent of their annual sales.
However, the social cost is even higher, according to De Hoyos Walther. Around 14 percent of income goes to paying extra-official fees, and a correlation between levels of corruption and levels of violence has been established.
Coparmex has always fought for important causes in Mexico, such as education, participatory democracy, dialogue between businesses and workers and now, against corruption.”
— Gustavo de Hoyos Walther, president of the Employers Federation of Mexico (Coparmex)
“The ‘three by three’ law (Ley 3de3) should pass. More than 634,000 citizens have signed petitions in support of it,” said De Hoyos Walther. “In addition to fiscal declarations and declarations of conflicts of interest, we need to assure that the forms of corruption are clearly described in the law, and that they are investigated and punished. We also need clear mechanisms to protect anonymous informers.”
He added that citizens should participate in the National Anti-Corruption System, and that the bodies that make it up should be autonomous.
“There can be no rule of law in a country where the interests of a few are given priority over the interests of many,” said De Hoyo Walthers. “We hope that our representatives will do the right thing and pass the legislation necessary for the National Anti-Corruption System by the end of the legislative session.”
