On November 2, 2020, the Secretary of Communications and Transportation published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (hereinafter, “DOF”) the Agreement delegating powers in matters of communications and technological development, as well as in matters of railroad and multimodal development under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (hereinafter, the “Agreement”), the “Agreement”) by which it delegated to the heads of the Undersecretary of Transportation and the Undersecretary of Infrastructure, the powers that corresponded to the former head of the Undersecretary of Communications and Technological Development.
The foregoing is in response to the presidential decree published in the DOF on April 23, 2020, which established austerity measures to be observed by the agencies and entities of the Federal Public Administration and instructed the cancellation of ten sub-secretariats of State (hereinafter, the “Decree”).
As a result of the Decree, on August 10, 2020, the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (hereinafter, the “Ministry” or “SCT”) issued the COMMUNICATION-181-2020 by means of which it informed the administrative restructuring to eliminate the Undersecretary of Communications and Technological Development, which was headed by Eng. Salma Jalife Villalón. This measure provided for the permanence of the former Undersecretary within the SCT to continue with the projects she was carrying out. However, at the beginning of September of this year, several media announced the resignation of Eng. Jalife to the Secretariat; information that to date has not been officially confirmed by the SCT.
The Agreement seeks to materialize the restructuring proposed by the SCT by delegating the exercise of the powers set forth in the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law and other applicable administrative provisions in the areas of communications and technological development to the Head of the Undersecretary of Transportation. Likewise, the Head of the Undersecretary of Infrastructure is delegated the powers set forth in the Railroad Service Regulatory Law, the Railroad Service Regulations and other applicable administrative provisions.
Likewise, in an attempt to organize the legal framework applicable to the Secretariat, on August 27, 2020, the Preliminary Draft of the Internal Regulations of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation was submitted to the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement. In general terms, the proposal presented consists of approving a new regulation that defines the competence of public servants, administrative units, deconcentrated administrative bodies and coordinations with the new organizational structure, without creating new obligations or sanctions or restricting the rights of individuals.
However, even though the Regulations were approved by the National Commissioner in September of this year for the SCT to continue with the necessary formalities for their publication, they have not been published in the DOF.
We will continue to keep you informed regarding the publication of the Regulations and any modifications resulting from these changes.
