UNM nearly named its new Center for Water Governance Studies after a Mexican government official, before discovering that the individual in question abused his position.
According to the New York Times, David Korenfeld was forced to resign his post as head of the National Water Commission in Mexico (CONAGUA) after photo evidence emerged of him using government property for personal use.
The evidence includes photos of Korenfeld and his family boarding a helicopter marked with CONAGUA’s logo, to images of luxury watches and mansions bought with government money.
This new center was created through a gift to the UNM Foundation from ANEAS, the National Association of Water and Sanitation Utilities of Mexico. Originally ANEAS requested the new center be named after Korenfeld, a former board president of the organization.
Associate Vice President for Research and Compliance Carlos Rey Romero said the University was sent a letter from ANEAS on May 4 requesting the removal of Korenfeld’s name from the new center.
When ANEAS discussed the naming with Korenfeld, he declined having the center being named after him, which was then communicated to Romero. Therefore, the establishment was dedicated on May 26 simply as the Center for Water Governance Studies.
Investigators from Mexico conducted an investigation on Korenfeld’s resignation from CONAGUA, and “were concerned that a serious institution named a non-academic program as: ‘David Korenfeld Center in Water Governance Studies,’” said Miriam Castillo Moya of Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity.
“(Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity) is a non-profit think-and-do tank committed to the consolidation of the rule of law in Mexico through the advancement of an innovative agenda to prevent, denounce, sanction and ultimately eradicate the corruption and impunity that prevail in the Mexican public and private sectors,” Moya said. “MCCI is committed to bringing corruption to light through investigative journalism, and the denouncing and prosecution of emblematic cases of corruption as well as those that place the greatest burden on the daily life of citizens.”
Moya said during Korenfeld’s three-year tenure as head of CONAGUA, he granted public contracts for 32 million pesos (more than $1,700,000 in U.S. dollars) to ANEAS.
For years Korenfield was a top member of the ANEAS board, and four months after his controversial departure of CONAGUA, the organization received contracts for another 61 million Mexican pesos, or about $3,280,000 U.S. dollars.
“In April 2015, Mr. Korenfeld left the government after being found guilty of misuse of public resources. Our report revealed that this year, ANEAS paid $150,000 (and promised to pay another $300,000) to UNM in order to name a non-academic program after Mr. Korenfeld,” Moya said.
“To us the conflict of interest is evident and even outrageous,” she said.
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According to MCCI, Korenfeld has been sanctioned by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Administration with a fine of approximately 639,000 Mexican pesos ($45,000 USD) for the “irregularity committed as a result of the use of a helicopter of that Commission (CONAGUA).”
Denicia Aragon is a staff reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com on Twitter @DailyLobo.
