As was emphasized by the General Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish), "the Mining Environmental Management Program" which aims to promote environmental stewardship in this activity had until April 2012 "a very low execution." In almost four years they used only 12.76% of the funds.

In assessing the financial statements, the watchdog noted that of the 26 million dollars that the plan has (provided by The Inter-American Development Plan -BID- and the Government) only "3 million dollars" were invested.

The low implementation rate is a problem, especially considering that the Program’s conditions "established a six year period to complete the use of the resources." In case the resources are not used, "additional financial costs are generated." The auditors noted that "they have less than two years to spend 83% of the remaining funds". The money made available by The BID that "was not used, in 2011 had already generated additional costs, just over 171,000 dollars."

Given this situation, the AGN recommended that for "future endeavors of this type they should have real and appropriate execution times for the financial and operational aspects”, for this the body relies on "the experience of the members of the executive unit."

For its part, the person responsible for carrying out the costs "did not contradict the calculations made by the audit." In fact, stated that "in the past two years has worked to reverse the situation of underspending trailing from the first two years," adding that to reverse that "significant progress that are not yet reflected in the financial performance were made" but that "major improvements will be seen in 2012, and more particularly in 2013."

What Is The Program About?

The objective of the plan is "to promote the incorporation of the environmental variable in mining." For that, the audited body "designed different activities for assessment and remediation of environmental damage in different locations affected by the actions" such as in Abra Pampa (Jujuy), Gonzalito (Río Negro) and Calingasta (San Juan).

According to the report, the Mining Environmental Management Program "provides for carrying out the surveillance and coordination of workshops to inform the community about the development of activities that tend to environmental sanitation." They also have a plan to "manage cooperative agreements with other agencies to support the implementation of the draft comprehensive environmental remediation liabilities."