President López Obrador is proposing to extend the limit of a ban on government officials joining the private sector to carry on working in the same field.

The waiting period is currently one year; the president suggests it be an entire decade.

The president’s announcement came after accusations of conflict of interest in the “privatization” of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) against ex-president Felipe Calderón and eight other former public officials.

The president said he believed that joining the private sector soon after leaving government was not only illegal but immoral and said that not even in the United States, where there is more interaction between the private and public sectors, are there cases as blatant as those that happened during “the neoliberal period,” as López Obrador likes to describe previous administrations.

In response to claims by some former public servants that their livelihoods depend on joining private companies, the president was adamant in asserting that there are other options and other opportunities, including high-paying jobs in the public service, which would give them the opportunity to continue saving money.

” . . . Some have master’s or doctor’s degrees, there are ways they can continue working and saving,” said López Obrador, adding that public servants will be given “a piggy bank” so they can start saving “right now.”

“I don’t care if they get angry or disagree, I am not taking a single step backwards in fighting corruption, impunity and pretense,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp)