The federal interior secretary today blamed a high-ranking bureaucrat and the department he heads for failing to include a penthouse she owns in Houston, Texas, on her personal assets declaration.

Speaking at the presidential press conference this morning, Olga Sánchez Cordero said that on January 30 she asked Fernando Martínez, head of the Public Administration Secretariat (SFP) department responsible for compiling such declarations, to publish all her assets.

Sánchez said that she has since asked the SFP department to explain why it omitted the property from her declaration.

The newspaper Reforma brought the omission to light earlier today in a report that said the 270-square-meter penthouse, owned by the former Supreme Court judge and her husband, is on the 22nd floor of a luxury building in an exclusive residential area of Houston and valued at more than US $583,000.

According to the public deed, Sánchez and her husband purchased the property on December 28, 2009, Reforma said.

The interior secretary said the newspaper should ask the SFP why it didn’t include the penthouse on her assets declaration, reiterating “I gave the instruction for it to be published.”

Sánchez also criticized the Reforma journalist who wrote the story for failing to ask for her version of events.

The publication last week of Sánchez’s other assets, which include a “rustic plot of land” valued at 90,000 pesos (US $4,700) and a 2.7-million-peso (US $141,000) apartment, came after President López Obrador issued an ultimatum declaring that “he who doesn’t make [their declaration] public, cannot work in the government.”

López Obrador, who took office on December 1, has pledged to lead a transparent government as part of his crusade to combat corruption.

Source: Reforma (sp), El Financiero (sp)