Article 79 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation (Auditoría Superior de la Federación) of the Chamber of Deputies shall have technical and management autonomy in the exercise of its powers and to decide on its internal organization, operation and resolutions, in the terms provided by law.

The audit function shall be exercised in accordance with the principles of legality, definitiveness, impartiality and reliability.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation may begin the audit process as of the first business day of the following fiscal year, without prejudice to the fact that the observations or recommendations it makes, as the case may be, must refer to the final information presented in the Public Account.

Likewise, as regards the audit planning work, the Superior Audit Office of the Federation may request information from the current fiscal year, with respect to concluded processes.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation shall be in charge of:

I.Auditing subsequently the revenues, expenditures and debt; the guarantees that, as the case may be, the Federal Government grants with respect to loans of the States and Municipalities; the handling, custody and application of funds and resources of the Powers of the Union and of the federal public entities, as well as conducting audits on performance in compliance with the objectives contained in federal programs, through the reports that shall be rendered in the terms provided by the Law.

It shall also directly audit the federal resources administered or exercised by the states (federal entities), the municipalities and the territorial divisions of Mexico City. In the terms established by law it shall audit, in coordination with the local audit entities or directly, the federal participations. In the case of the States and the Municipalities whose loans have the guarantee of the Federation, it shall audit the destination and exercise of the corresponding resources carried out by the local governments. Likewise, it shall audit the federal resources that are allocated and exercised by any entity, natural person or legal person, public or private, and those transferred to trusts, funds and mandates, public or private, or any other legal figure, in accordance with the procedures established in the laws and without prejudice to the competence of other authorities and to the rights of the users of the financial system.

The audited entities referred to in the preceding paragraph must keep the accounting, patrimonial and budgetary control and record of the resources of the Federation that are transferred and assigned to them, in accordance with the criteria established by the Law.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation may request and review, on a case-by-case and specific basis, information from fiscal years prior to that of the Public Account under review, without this meaning, for all legal purposes, that the Public Account of the fiscal year to which the requested information belongs is reopened, exclusively when the program, project or expenditure contained in the budget under review covers, for its execution and payment, various fiscal years, or when it concerns reviews of compliance with the objectives of federal programs. The observations and recommendations that the Superior Audit Office of the Federation respectively issues may only refer to the exercise of the public resources of the Public Account under review.

Without prejudice to the provisions of the preceding paragraph, in the situations determined by the Law, deriving from complaints, the Superior Audit Office of the Federation, with prior authorization of its Head, may review the audited entities during the current fiscal year, as well as with respect to prior fiscal years. The audited entities shall provide the information requested for the review, within the periods and terms indicated by the Law and, in case of non-compliance, the sanctions provided therein shall be applicable. The Superior Audit Office of the Federation shall render a specific report to the Chamber of Deputies and, as the case may be, shall promote the corresponding actions before the Federal Court of Administrative Justice (Tribunal Federal de Justicia Administrativa), the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Combating Corruption (Fiscalía Especializada en Combate a la Corrupción) or the competent authorities;

II.Delivering to the Chamber of Deputies, on the last business day of the months of June and October, as well as on 20 February of the year following that of the presentation of the Public Account, the individual audit reports that it concludes during the respective period. Likewise, on this last date, delivering the General Executive Report of the Result of the Superior Audit of the Public Account, which shall be submitted to the consideration of the Plenary of said Chamber. The General Executive Report and the individual reports shall be public in nature and shall have the content determined by law; the latter shall include at a minimum the opinion of their review, a specific section with the observations of the Superior Audit Office of the Federation, as well as the justifications and clarifications that, as the case may be, the audited entities have presented thereon.

For such purpose, prior to the presentation of the General Executive Report and of the individual audit reports, the audited entities shall be informed of the part corresponding to them of the results of their review, so that they present the corresponding justifications and clarifications, which must be evaluated by the Superior Audit Office of the Federation for the preparation of the individual audit reports.

The Head of the Superior Audit Office of the Federation shall send to the audited entities the individual audit reports corresponding to them, no later than 10 business days after the respective individual audit report has been delivered to the Chamber of Deputies, which shall contain the recommendations and actions that correspond so that, within a period of up to 30 business days, they present the information and make the considerations they deem pertinent; should they fail to do so, they shall be subject to the sanctions established in the Law. The foregoing shall not apply to the promotions of responsibilities before the Federal Court of Administrative Justice, which shall be subject to the procedures and terms established by the Law.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation must rule within a period of 120 business days on the responses issued by the audited entities; should it fail to do so, the recommendations and actions promoted shall be deemed attended to.

In the case of the recommendations, the audited entities must specify before the Superior Audit Office of the Federation the improvements made, the actions undertaken or, as the case may be, justify their inadmissibility.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation must deliver to the Chamber of Deputies, on the 1st day of the months of May and November of each year, a report on the situation of the observations, recommendations and actions promoted, corresponding to each of the individual audit reports that it has presented in the terms of this section. In said report, which shall be public in nature, the Audit Office shall include the amounts effectively restored to the Federal Public Treasury or to the patrimony of the federal public entities, as a consequence of its audit actions, the criminal complaints filed and the proceedings initiated before the Federal Court of Administrative Justice.

The Superior Audit Office of the Federation must keep its actions and observations confidential until it renders the individual audit reports and the General Executive Report to the Chamber of Deputies referred to in this section; the Law shall establish the sanctions applicable to those who infringe this provision;

III.Investigating the acts or omissions that involve any irregularity or unlawful conduct in the revenue, expenditure, handling, custody and application of federal funds and resources, and carrying out domiciliary visits, solely to require the production of books, papers or files indispensable for carrying out its investigations, subject to the laws and to the formalities established for searches, and

IV.Deriving from its investigations, promoting the responsibilities that are appropriate before the Federal Court of Administrative Justice and the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Combating Corruption, for the imposition of the sanctions that correspond to federal public officials and, in the case of the second paragraph of section I of this article, to the public officials of the states, municipalities, the Federal District and its territorial divisions, and to private individuals.

The Chamber of Deputies shall appoint the Head of the Superior Audit Office of the Federation by the vote of two thirds of its members present. The law shall determine the procedure for his appointment. Said Head shall hold his office for eight years and may be appointed again only once. He may be removed, exclusively, for the serious causes indicated by law, with the same vote required for his appointment, or for the causes and in accordance with the procedures provided in Title Four of this Constitution.

To be Head of the Superior Audit Office of the Federation, it is required to comply, in addition to the requirements established in sections I, II, IV, V and VI of article 95 of this Constitution, with those indicated by law. During the exercise of his office he may not be a member of any political party, nor hold another employment, office or commission, except the unpaid ones in scientific, teaching, artistic or charitable associations.

The Powers of the Union, the states (federal entities) and the other audited entities shall provide the assistance required by the Superior Audit Office of the Federation for the exercise of its functions and, should they fail to do so, they shall be subject to the sanctions established by the Law. Likewise, the federal and local public officials, as well as any entity, natural person or legal person, public or private, trust, mandate or fund, or any other legal figure, that receives or exercises federal public resources, must provide the information and documentation requested by the Superior Audit Office of the Federation, in accordance with the procedures established in the laws and without prejudice to the competence of other authorities and to the rights of the users of the financial system. In case of not providing the information, those responsible shall be sanctioned in the terms established by the Law.

The Federal Executive Power shall apply the administrative enforcement procedure for the collection of the compensation (indemnities) and pecuniary sanctions referred to in section IV of this article.