ANTI-CORRUPTION CZAR IN MEXICO HAS HANDS FULL

Mexico City --- Known as "Mr. Clean," President Vicente Fox's new
anti-corruption czar has the potential to become one of Mexico's most
powerful and feared officials.

Francisco Barrio, a former governor of Chihuahua state in northern
Mexico, is responsible for unearthing corruption and federal spending
irregularities in a country with a long history of both.

The Fox administration is struggling to shape guidelines and
disclosure rules for government spending. Barrio's mission is one of
the cornerstones of the government's attempts to earn confidence at
home and abroad after Fox's election last year ended 71 years of
one-party authoritarian control in Mexico.

Bribes paid out to police on the street and to public servants in
government offices have long been part of the fabric of life here.
Mexicans have come to expect that government officials in the highest
of positions will help themselves to thousands, if not millions, of
dollars in public money.

Barrio, whose official title is comptroller general, has repeatedly
said corruption can't be eradicated during Fox's six-year term. But
the government can begin to lay the foundation for reducing it.

"If the risks are greater than the benefits, then there is no
corruption. The problem is in many, many cases, there are no risks. So
we have to raise those risks," Barrio said in a recent interview.

Since he took office with Fox in December, Barrio has been
investigating some of Mexico's biggest federal institutions ---
including Pemex, the national oil company, where at least $21 million
has been allegedly mismanaged.

The investigation, in which some top Pemex officials already have been
fired, involves suspicious contracts with private firms hired to
provide technical support to the public company.

In a federal system of subsidized stores and pharmacies, Barrio
reportedly found more than $41 million in irregularities and
mismanagement. Federal police officials, too, have been accused of
irregularities in the purchasing of helicopters and airplanes.

Barrio, 50, is a member of Fox's fiscally conservative National Action
Party, the PAN.

He governed Chihuahua in the 1990s, an experience that appears to have
taught him that stamping out corruption is no easy task in Mexico.

Chihuahua is notorious for narcotics-related corruption and violence.
Yet when he was governor, Barrio said, he managed to earn the trust of
neighboring Texas law enforcement officials. In one year, he said, his
state government returned 2,000 cars stolen from Texans.

Since he took over his new job, more than 5,000 public servants have
been fired and fined or otherwise punished in a variety of corruption
investigations.

About 100 medium to high-level public officials are under
investigation. Among those dismissed are 10 former employees who used
to work in Barrio's office before he took over.

They were communications officers who allegedly habitually faked
orders for airplane tickets so they could pocket money.

Under Fox's orders, Barrio has started forming groups of undercover
inspectors to operate in every federal agency in Mexico that has
direct contact with the public.

Barrio said a tremendous amount of corruption in Mexico takes places
at what he calls the "window of corruption" --- or the counter in
offices where the public seeks various types of services.

In a pilot undercover program earlier this year, Barrio's office
discovered that public servants in seven Mexican cities were charging
and pocketing the equivalent of $100 apiece, on top of regular fees,
to issue federal driver's licenses.

Federal driver's licenses are needed to operate trucks, buses and
certain other vehicles on Mexico's federal highways.

Unqualified applicants with bad vision and other deficiencies were
being granted licenses as long as they forked over bribes.

Dozens were fired for participating in the scam.

"It was a kind of franchise operation," Barrio said with a rueful
smile.

Barrio is even investigating his boss, the president, in a scandal
known as "Towelgate." In June, reporters checking disclosures of
government purchases found orders for embroidered towels for the Fox
residence costing $400 a towel.

Barrio already has reported overspending and irregularities in billing
linked to the purchase orders.

A number of people have been dismissed, including a close adviser to
Fox. Results of the probe could be announced later this month.

Mexican political analyst Jose Antonio Crespo said Fox and Barrio have
more "political will" to tackle corruption than previous government
officials.

But the government needs to nail prominent corrupt figures from the
past regime --- which it hasn't yet --- to prove it isn't engaged in a
public relations show, Crespo said.