Government Ads Cost Mexico Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions of Dollars The Associated Press
go to original April 10, 2013

MEXICO CITY - A new report has found that Mexico's 32 state governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars in scarce funds on advertising their achievements, often in questionable ways.

The report by press and transparency groups says there is little accountability and a lot of apparent favoritism in ad budgets.

Results for 2011 show that in the most recent year studied, the states spent about $370 million on newspaper, TV, internet and radio ads.

The report published Wednesday show the expenses often went over budget and were not clearly reported. The states spent more money on ads than on school text books, for example.

Some media outlets quoted in the report say the ads are handed out discretionally, to reward certain kinds of coverage and discourage criticism.

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