Aerolineas Argentinas’ balances for 2008 received the "abstention of opinion" from the General Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish) twice. After a first result of this type, the company decided to rectify its financial statements, but did not change the score.

The watchdog has the power to analyze the numbers of entities like Aerolineas Argentinas. What is sought in these studies is to assess whether the economic and financial dealings are fair or not. And there are several causes that may result in a disclaimer of opinion; for example, when an auditor cannot make a judgment on the financial statements due to limitations on the scope of their work, or by the uncertainty generated by the data collected. In the case of the state-owned airline, both occurred.

The AGN had already issued a disclaimer of opinion on the balance sheets of the company up to December 31st, 2008, in fact, the first financial analysis following the re-nationalization of the airline, which occurred in July of that year. After this initial result, the company decided to rectify their financial statements in June of last year so to -as they say in audit jargon- try to save the abstention. That second set of papers was also analyzed by the Audit, but had the same conclusion.

According to the report adopted in 2011 on the mended balance, the watchdog had "limitations on the scope" of their work, such as that "in 2008 the lack of sufficient controls to enable timely detection and correction was verified". Moreover, they had not expected the money to carry out the trials faced by the airline then, some 2,300 cases of different sizes, of which 1,363 claims were quantified for $ 305,942,675.

Also, documentation was found that spoke of a spare parts inventory that summed about $116,977,260, but were not supported by a "valued physical inventory," which made it impossible to identify the assets that comprise the total amount." Something similar occurred in the "pending utilization tickets" because the company did not have a system that would back up a $479,871,747 balance.

Regarding the aircrafts, to December 31st, 2008 there were 15 airplanes that could not fly because of a lack of maintenance. The report explains that "the company agreed with the landlords they would not pay for maintenance, but at the date of the financial statements, there was no documentation that would assess the adequacy of provisions and reserve maintenance provided for leaving the aircraft in operating conditions." But the absence of opinion is also supported by lack of certainty about some data collected. In that sense, the AGN itself suggests that rectification of the financial statements is uncertain. The problem is that with these changes, “modification results from previous years” and therefore is included in the accumulated balance.

In this balance the waivers that the airline negotiated a moratorium with the AFIP had not been counted. Debts contained in this summary amounted to $347,536,074, without considering a refund of $ 175,533,995, a little more than half.

To top it all off, the audit states that "in recent years, (the company) has increased the accumulated losses" and extends, "On 31/12/08, the financial statements show a net loss for the year of $ 1.814 million and a negative aggregate of $ 4,440 million. Furthermore, the negative equity is $ 3,531 million. As per the financial statements to 31/12/2007 (which were not made by the AGN, but by the private consulting firm Price Waterhouse and Co SRL, had the same result: absence of opinion), the Company already had a causal solution for loss of share capital, in which shareholders must repay their capital to avoid liquidation. "

In its opinion, the watchdog says that "due to the significant effect that represent the scope limitations outlined above, and the effect that might result from the aforementioned uncertainties, we are unable to deliver an opinion on the financial statements of Aerolineas Argentinas to December 31st, 2008 ", which ultimately is the third result of this type: the 2007, Price Waterhouse criteria, and the following year plus its correction, by decision of the General Audit Office.