Mexican Senator Proposes to Make Regulator More Independent

The chairman of the Mexican senate committee for radio, TV, and film, Carlos Sotelo, has submitted a bill seeking to give the telecoms regulator Cofetel more independence from the central government, local newspapers reported Sotelo as saying.

Sotelo wants Cofetel to have the same legal status as the country's commission on human rights, or federal election institute to prevent the watchdog from being influenced by special interest groups or political agendas in its awarding of concessions and other decrees, the report said.

The senator wants to avoid "economic powers and companies that today monopolize the sector from having the ability to control [Cofetel's agenda] to preserve their own interests over those of the public" Sotelo said.

Cofetel's lack of autonomy is one of the factors responsible for the slow regulatory process in Mexico, according to a report on Mexico's regulatory environment issued in June by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac).

The report said that the "lack of any real autonomy and limitation of [Cofetel's] powers has caused a regulatory process that is slow and inefficient because [Cofetel] does not have available flexible procedures nor the sufficient authority to take decisive action or make opportune decisions."

Posted to the site on 6th August 2007