The impact of the new Mexico City airport plans on transparency efforts.
Mexico City's new international airport is a test of government efforts to make public procurement for megaprojects less corrupt. The Ministry of Transport (SCT) on January 9 signed a memorandum of understanding with the OECD in order to foster integrity, transparency and best practice in the public bidding processes surrounding a project that will require an investment of more than 120 billion pesos (8 billion dollars), making it one of the world's largest infrastructure projects.
The OECD's assistance will be insufficient to guarantee transparency and accountability without improving legal enforcement.
State-level procurement processes are more problematic than federal ones due to defective legal frameworks and lack of qualified personnel.
The government needs to be seen doing more to buttress accountability in areas going beyond public procurement.
