US$20 million to extend the Metropolitan Autonomous University go missing

The plan was to build a three-story building with classrooms and offices for teachers, administrative areas and a cultural center to extend Azcapotzalco campus of the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM).

However the 350 million pesos (US$20 million) approved for the project went “missing”, along with the opportunity of bringing education to hundreds of students of Gustavo A. Madero district in Mexico City.

Now the dean of the UAM, Salvador Vega León, and former legislators of the Democratic Revolution Party who approved the funds are at odds to explain the use given to the money.

David Alejandro Díaz Méndez, spokesman of the University, says that there is no document to prove that the funds were to be used to extend the educational offer in the region. He showed to EL UNIVERSAL a document that says that 50 million were used for the construction of a new building at the UAM Iztapalapa for the science and technology department and 300 million pesos more to pay salaries and benefits.

Nonetheless the Surveillance Commission of the Superior Audit of the Federation at the Chamber of Deputies will investigate if the UAM used the resources adequately.

Meanwhile the land where the extended university was to be built is used by a nursery, a dump and a dental clinic of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. And the project, presented in July 2014, remained as a blueprint.

(With information from Natalia Gómez)