The entry into operations of the Mayan Train could be delayed beyond its official inauguration, scheduled for 2023, according to the Public Account 2020, prepared by the Superior Audit of the Federation (ASF). Construction also accumulates pending amounts to be clarified for more than 267.8 million pesos (mdp).
In addition, the section dedicated to the advances in the development of the Mayan Train, in charge of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur), indicates that the total amount of investment for the project increased 26.8% between 2019 and 2023, going from 141,020 million pesos (mdp) to 178,984 mdp, which translates into an increase in prices of almost 38,000 mdp and a financial advance of 18.5% of the estimated total investment.
Roberto Jiménez Pons, general director of Fonatur, had warned in 2021 that the cost of the project could rise to 230,000 million pesos.
Regarding the probable delay, the ASF explained that the indicators of profitability, passenger and cargo demand need to be updated due to factors such as the change of lines in areas such as Section 4 – which goes from Izamal, Yucatán, to Cancún, Quintana Roo–, among other factors that led to its completion being extended until 2022.
This “would generate delays in the entry into operation of the project, scheduled for 2023, and would limit the fulfillment of its objective, related to promoting economic development and triggering the tourist product of the Yucatan Peninsula,” he said in audit 2020-3- 21W3N-07-0401-2021.
In addition, the ASF detected amounts to be clarified in different items, which accumulate 267.8 million pesos both in the sections whose construction was tendered to private companies (ranging from 1 to 4), as well as in sections 6 and 7, which are in charge of the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena).
Section 4 – which was granted to ICA through a direct award for having the right of way of the Kantunil-Cancún highway, adjacent to the route of the road – is the one with the largest amount to be clarified, of more than 100 million pesos.
The ASF points out that there is a duplicity of costs in the items of consultants, advisors and services, and research studies – activities that, together, represent more than 131 million pesos within the Tranche 4 contract – since they were considered within the indirect costs. , when there are already other services related to these activities, in addition to part of the scope of the contract also contemplating them. In the area of health and safety of the Tranche 4 contract, duplications were also detected in the integration of the matrixes at unit prices, while the bidding expenses section – which implies an amount of 5.3 million pesos – is not considered justifiable, since the contract was awarded directly to ICA.
The ASF also identified an incorrect integration of unit prices in the basic engineering contracts for the Mayan Train, which add up to 38.7 million pesos, since in the price matrices “the longer times of the personnel considered in the labor force were contemplated with respect to the times established in the work programs of the economic proposal. This discrepancy was identified in Section 5 –which is being built by Sedena for the northern part, and the consortium Acciona and Grupo México in the southern part–, as well as in sections 6 and 7, under the responsibility of Sedena.
The duplication of expenses was also pointed out in the audits of sections 1 – carried out by the Portuguese firm Mota-Engil and the state-owned company China Communications Construction Company Limited, in partnership with the Mexican companies Gavil Ingeniería, Eyasa and Grupo Cosh.
In section 2 – which is being built by Operadora Cicsa and FCC Construcción, both owned by magnate Carlos Slim – neither the total release of the rights of way nor the Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) was processed or obtained prior to the start of the works, and the corresponding resolution, among other items. Meanwhile, section 3 – awarded to Construcciones Urales, Gami Ingeniería e Instalaciones and Azvi SAU – presented several discrepancies between the contracting of services and personnel, and the lack of accreditation of rights of way.
Observations on the environmental impact of the Mayan Train
The ASF also reports the lack of coordination and labeling of resources for the environmental mitigation actions of the Mayan Train, and even pointed out that there are 457.6 million pesos as part of the environmental costs that were not included in the total cost of the project.
“In addition (…) the costs related to archaeological prospecting and environmental studies were not included, referring to the exemption of the MIA, the MIA-R Phase 1 and the Justifying Technical Study,” said the ASF in the 2020 audit. -3-21W3N-07-0260-2021.
Regarding the activities of preservation and conservation of the environment where the project is built, five environmental impacts were identified that require 33 mitigation measures, of which 19 have been implemented. However, the Fonatur did not have the statistical records of their execution.
“Fonatur does not have indicators to evaluate and monitor actions to mitigate the negative effects on the environment that will be generated in the components of flora, fauna, soil, air, and surface and underground hydrology, as a result of the execution of activities provided for in the Request for Exemption from the Environmental Impact Statement of the Mayan Train Project,” said the ASF.
