Internal Control Units, a municipal organism to fight corruption
Resumen
This article reviews the progress and stagnation (setbacks) regarding municipal anti-corruption systems. We focus on Internal Control Units (ICU) or Internal Auditing Units of three local governments (Zapopan and Tlaquepaque in Jalisco, and Poza Rica in Veracruz). We view these Internal Control Units, as strategic areas, where it is possible to find potential capacities to prevent, address and correct illicit practices against public resources. Currently in Mexico there are no other evident alternatives oriented to conduct coordination tasks within local administrations. Administrative fragility, absence of transparent processes, as well as a lack of technical capabilities within municipalities in Mexico provide singular conditions for corruption. Our central purpose is to analyze ICUs functioning, their institutional environment and interactions between them. This allows to observe results, difficulties and provide a groundwork to discuss new trends to evaluate their performance. Keywords: municipal anti-corruption system, local goverment, internal control units, corruption, local institutions