The Director of the North American Development Bank (NADBANK), Alfredo Phillips Olmedo, has announced that he is leaving the Bank to assume the number 2 position in Mexico's ruling Revolutionary Institutional Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI). Phillips was named to the top managing position at the NADBank, a bi-national bank set up to help finance the construction of environmental infrastructure projects along the border, in January of 1995. His new assignment, according to a report in the El Paso Times, will be secretary of international affairs for the PRI national executive committee.
In related news, the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC or Cocef) is losing its two top administrators as well. General Manager Roger Frauenfelder and Deputy General Manager Luis Raul Dominguez announced their resignations effective February 16 during a special meeting of the commission's board of directors. The BECC is another bi-national organization created as part of the environmental side agreement to the NAFTA, along with the NADBank, to help oversee and finance environmental clean-up projects along the 2,000 mile U.S.-Mexico border.
The BECC is responsible for certifying infrastructure projects for the NADBank and has come under criticism for a lack of progress in getting projects moving. Currently 79 water, sewer and solid waste projects are in various stages of consideration by the BECC. 12 projects have been certified and forwarded to the NADBank for financing and only four have been approved for financing.
Source: El Paso Times