Article 109 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States

The public officials and private individuals who incur responsibility before the State shall be sanctioned in accordance with the following:

I.The sanctions indicated in Article 110 shall be imposed, through impeachment proceedings (juicio político), on the public officials indicated in that same provision, when in the exercise of their functions they incur in acts or omissions that redound to the detriment of the fundamental public interests or of their proper discharge.

Impeachment proceedings do not proceed for the mere expression of ideas.

II.The commission of crimes by any public official or private individuals who incur in acts of corruption shall be sanctioned in the terms of the applicable criminal legislation.

The laws shall determine the cases and the circumstances in which criminal sanctions must be imposed, on grounds of illicit enrichment, on the public officials who during the time of their office, or for reasons thereof, by themselves or through an intermediary person, increase their patrimony, acquire assets or conduct themselves as owners over them, whose lawful origin they could not justify. The criminal laws shall sanction with the forfeiture and with the deprivation of ownership of said assets, in addition to the other penalties that correspond;

III.Administrative sanctions shall be applied to public officials for the acts or omissions that affect the legality, honesty, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency that they must observe in the performance of their employments, charges or commissions. Said sanctions shall consist of admonishment, suspension, dismissal and disqualification, as well as economic sanctions, and shall be established in accordance with the economic benefits that, as the case may be, the responsible party has obtained and with the patrimonial damages and injuries caused by the acts or omissions. The law shall establish the procedures for the investigation and sanction of said acts or omissions.

Serious administrative faults shall be investigated and substantiated by the Superior Audit Office of the Federation (Auditoría Superior de la Federación) and the internal control bodies, or by their counterparts in the states (federal entities), as applicable, and shall be resolved by the Administrative Justice Court (Tribunal de Justicia Administrativa) that is competent. The other administrative faults and sanctions shall be heard and resolved by the internal control bodies.

For the investigation, substantiation and sanction of the administrative responsibilities of the members of the Federal Judiciary, the provisions of Article 94 of this Constitution shall be observed, without prejudice to the attributions of the Superior Audit Office of the Federation in matters of auditing the handling, custody and application of public resources.

The law shall establish the assumptions and procedures to challenge the classification of administrative faults as non-serious, made by the internal control bodies.

Federal public entities shall have internal control bodies with the powers determined by law to prevent, correct and investigate acts or omissions that could constitute administrative responsibilities; to sanction those different from those that are the competence of the Federal Administrative Justice Court (Tribunal Federal de Justicia Administrativa); to review the income, expenditure, handling, custody and application of federal public resources and federal participations; as well as to file the complaints for facts or omissions that could be constitutive of crime before the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Combating Corruption (Fiscalía Especializada en Combate a la Corrupción) referred to in this Constitution.

State and municipal public entities, as well as those of the Federal District and its territorial demarcations, shall have internal control bodies, which shall have, in their local sphere of competence, the attributions referred to in the preceding paragraph, and

IV.The administrative justice courts shall impose on the private individuals who intervene in acts linked to serious administrative faults, independently of any other type of responsibilities, the economic sanctions; disqualification from participating in acquisitions, leases, services or public works; as well as the compensation of the damages and injuries caused to the Public Treasury or to federal, local or municipal public entities. Legal persons shall be sanctioned in the terms of this section when the acts linked to serious administrative faults are carried out by natural persons acting in the name or representation of the legal person and for its benefit. The suspension of activities, dissolution or intervention of the respective company may also be ordered when it involves serious administrative faults that cause harm to the Public Treasury or to federal, local or municipal public entities, provided that the company obtains an economic benefit and the participation of its administration, oversight bodies or its partners is accredited, or in those cases in which it is observed that the company is used systematically to engage in serious administrative faults; in these cases the sanction shall be executed until the resolution is final. The laws shall establish the procedures for the investigation and imposition of the applicable sanctions for said acts or omissions.

The procedures for the application of the sanctions mentioned in the preceding sections shall be developed autonomously. Sanctions of the same nature may not be imposed twice for a single conduct.

Any citizen, under his or her strictest responsibility and through the presentation of elements of proof, may file a complaint before the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union regarding the conducts to which this article refers.

In the fulfillment of their attributions, the provisions directed at protecting the secrecy of information in fiscal matters or the information related to deposit, administration, savings and investment operations of monetary resources shall not be opposable to the bodies responsible for the investigation and sanction of administrative responsibilities and acts of corruption. The law shall establish the procedures for said information to be delivered to them.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation and the Ministry of the Federal Executive responsible for internal control may appeal the determinations of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Combating Corruption and of the Federal Administrative Justice Court, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 20, Subsection C, section VII, and 104, section III of this Constitution, respectively.

The responsibility of the State for the damages that, by reason of its irregular administrative activity, it causes to the goods or rights of private individuals shall be objective and direct. Private individuals shall be entitled to a compensation (indemnity) in accordance with the bases, limits and procedures established by the laws.