New Senate building finally unveiled

After a seven-month delay and 50 percent cost overruns, the new site was inaugurated Wednesday

Mexico Weekly / April 13, 2011

After months of delays and hundreds of millions of pesos in cost overruns, senators on Wednesday inaugurated their new home in central Mexico City.

The building, located on touristy Paseo de la Reforma, was meant to be finished last September, yet construction is still going on. The building will not be fully completed until the end of April, El Universal reported.

The company in charge of the project – Mexican-based GAMI – will be fined 5 million pesos ($416,667) for the delay, according to El Universal.

The construction was also 50 percent over budget. Costs have reached 2.6 billion pesos ($213.58 million), when only 1.699 billion pesos ($141.6 million) was originally allocated for the project back in 2007, La Jornada reported.

The total cost of the new Senate building is twice this year's total budget for the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM).

New Building Excesses

Indeed, some lawmakers have criticized apparent excesses in the new building – marble and granite were imported from China, and furniture was brought in from Italy and Spain.

Spanish company Sutega won a 170 million-peso ($14.2 million) contract to provide furniture for lawmakers’ offices and work areas, La Jornada reported.

“Are we going to inaugurate these excesses – with Italian chairs so that senators are comfortable – while there are construction workers here [in Mexico] who are unemployed?” asked Labor Party Sen. Ricardo Monreal, according to La Jornada.

The new building also includes touch-screen computers for senators to vote on, to reduce paper consumption; a solar water-heating system; energy-saving light bulbs;

and a rainwater recycling system, El Economista reported.

Tuesday marked the senators’ last day at the building on Calle Xicoténcatl, also in the Centro Histórico.

On their last day there, senators rushed through 17 bills, most of them passed without debate, Milenio reported. Among them was a law that will allow the military to transfer desk personnel to combat areas in emergency situations.

The Xicoténcatl structure was used by the Senate for 80 years, and will continue to be used as an alternate Senate building. Parts of the building will be turned into a museum.

Lawmakers will continue to hold the presentation ceremony for the Belisario Domínguez Award (the top prize given by the Senate to distinguished citizens) at Xicoténcatl.

— By Bronson Pettitt

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ALDF cracks down on truants

Mexico City lawmakers agreed to enforce fines on lawmakers who fail to attend committee meetings

By BRONSON PETTITT

Mexico Weekly / March 24, 2011

The Mexico City Legislative Assembly (ALDF) agreed on Wednesday to enforce fines on lawmakers who fail to attend committee meetings amid a mountain of bills that have not been debated.

The sanctions include a 50-percent deduction from the offending legislator's daily food stipend (approximately $96) for each committee meeting missed. The fines have never been enforced since the assembly was established back in 1997, Milenio reported Thursday.

As of Wednesday night, 24 of the 36 committees in the ALDF submitted attendance lists, Milenio reported. The lists also include tardy arrivals and specify if absences were justified (due to illness, or if committee meetings coincide with other committee meetings to which a legislators belongs).

ALDF bylaws say that any member who misses three consecutive committee meetings without permission or justification will be removed from that particular committee.

The ALDF president, Alejandra Barrales of the PRD, said the fines are meant to increase productivity and efficiency. ALDF leadership will even consider removing committee presidents and changing committee structure if attendance does not improve, Barrales told Milenio.

Earlier this week, the ALDF fined 18 lawmakers a total of 50,521 pesos ($4,210) for missing one or more of the seven floor sessions that took place in December. This was the first time such fines have ever been handed out in ALDF history, Milenio reported Tuesday.

PRD members accumulated the most absences in December, followed by PAN, PRI and Labor Party members.

In an attempt to tackle the two-year backlog of 347 bills still waiting to be debated in various committees, the ALDF announced earlier this month it would increase its weekly sessions from two to three. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, with lawmakers from every state in the country, only meet twice a week.

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