National and sub-national dimensions of auditing in Mexico

This chapter draws on principles of multi-level governance to suggest ways that Mexico’s National Auditing System (Sistema Nacional de Fiscalización, or SNF) can act on to close important legal, policy, resource and capacity gaps, and improve itself as a system of accountability actors. Responsibility for strengthening accountability, integrity and transparency in Mexico is shared between SNF and its members, and relies on mutual dependencies. In pursuit of these principles, the SNF and its stakeholders (e.g. the Mexican Congress) can draw on principles of effective multi-level governance that recognise the importance of co-ordination that is both “vertical” across different levels of government, as well as “horizontal” among relevant actors at the same level of government. To do this, as explored in this chapter, the SNF can take steps to close legal and policy gaps, strengthen its own formal and informal co-ordination mechanisms, address implementation challenges and improve the balance between centralised and decentralised approaches to auditing.