(MENAFN- Gulf Times) A Mexican government auditor has exonerated President Enrique Pe?a Nieto and his finance minister from any wrongdoing over purchases of homes from public contractors, but opposition lawmakers poured scorn over the bid to lay the scandal to rest.
Virgilio Andrade, head of the public administration ministry, said the investigation showed that neither Pe?a Nieto nor Finance Minister Luis Videgaray had gained benefits or tried to influence officials responsible for awarding contracts to companies that sold homes to them and the president's wife.
Appointed by Pe?a Nieto to run the public administration ministry after an outcry over the homes, Andrade said investigators had questioned 111 officials involved in awarding 33 contracts to the companies linked to the homes.
In a news conference to announce the probe's findings, Andrade explained how Pe?a Nieto and Videgaray had not broken any laws and argued that the two politicians had not held public office at relevant moments in the chronology of the purchases.
"It was determined there is no conflict of interest," Andrade said before facing repeated questions from reporters about how his ministry had reached its conclusions.
Speaking later on Friday, Pe?a Nieto said the investigation showed that he, his wife and Videgaray had not broken any laws.
"Nonetheless," he said, "I'm aware and I recognise that these events created interpretations that hurt and outraged many Mexicans. To all those people, I offer a sincere apology."
Videgaray bought his home in October 2012 when he was head of the transition team formed after Pe?a Nieto won the July 2012 presidential election, and had been expected to hold a top cabinet post once they took office that December.
Also, by the time first lady Angelica Rivera agreed to buy her multi-million-dollar house in January 2012, Pe?a Nieto was the clear favourite to win the presidency.
The controversy erupted last November when it emerged that Rivera was acquiring her home from a company that was part of a Chinese-led consortium to build a $3.75bn rail link.
The company was headed by contractor Juan Armando Hinojosa, and the government cancelled the rail contract just before a major media investigation on the home purchase was published.
Andrade's arguments were in line with the position taken by the Mexican presidency, whose chief spokesman in January said there would be no mea culpa over the purchases. "It was a pantomime, and we all expected this result," said Fernando Belaunzaran, a leftist opposition congressman. "The investigation itself was a conflict of interest."
Ricardo Anaya, head of the opposition centre-right National Action Party, dismissed the investigation as a "joke".
Andrade told reporters that Rivera had returned the house to Hinojosa's company and rejected the idea that the entrepreneur's ties with Pe?a Nieto posed any moral dilemma.
"Conflict of interest does not materialise with friendship," he said, adding that the investigation had followed both the letter and "spirit" of the law.
The housing revelations were deeply embarrassing to Pe?a Nieto because the lucrative rail contract was cancelled just as he was about to set off to China for a state visit.
It subsequently emerged that Videgaray had purchased a home from Hinojosa and that Pe?a Nieto enjoyed rent-free use of another Hinojosa property during the 2012 election campaign.
Further media investigations showed Pe?a Nieto had bought a property a decade ago from a different company that subsequently went on to acquire substantial government business.
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