The Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) modified its organic statute in order to continue operating effectively, because as of March 1 of this year, its Plenary will remain with only four commissioners, of the seven that it required before the change. The Modification Agreement will enter into force the day after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
Among the changes endorsed by the telecommunications regulatory body are those of articles 7 and 12, first paragraph, corresponding to the quorum necessary for the highest governing body of this regulator to meet, as well as to convene extraordinary sessions.
“In order to avoid the Institute’s paralysis in the exercise of its constitutional and legal powers, it is necessary to adjust the requirement of physical or virtual presence so that when at least three Commissioners can validly start a plenary session, as well as to convene to extraordinary sessions”, explained the IFT in a statement.
Other modifications and additions to the Organic Statute were approved with the objective of optimizing the functioning of the administrative units of the IFT, since the redistribution and precision of the scope of some functions is deemed pertinent, in order to speed up and clarify the exercise of the powers that they are conferred on them.
The telecommunications regulatory body has been fighting a battle to maintain its autonomy since the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began, which has reduced the IFT’s budget and has sought to merge it with the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) and even disappear it.
Last week, López Obrador accepted that he no longer has time to modify the Constitution, in order to eliminate him or add him to a government agency, so “soon he will send the short lists to assign a commissioner.”
But five days after the departure of Adolfo Cuevas, Javier Juárez Mojica, the current commissioner of the IFT, would be the new interim president of the Institute, because he is the longest-serving official within the Plenary of the Institute, having six years in office. functions.
However, even with Javier Juárez Mojica at the helm, the IFT plenary will have only four commissioners out of seven, because the Institute has had two vacant positions for commissioners for more than a year and a half.
