North of the province of Salta is a small town, called Aguaray, in which about 14 thousand people live and has a special feature: it does not comply with its own rules, in the management of public accounts, nor do they follow provincial or national rules related to the same topic.

A report of the General Auditor of Salta found that "the Accounting Department (of the Commune) does not comply with the provisions of the resolutions of the Federal Public Revenue Administration -AFIP- in regard to Regime issuing vouchers, registration and information operations." And also at the national level, it was noted that "the municipality did not make available (to the Watchdog) any documentation relating to the application of funds received from the Federal Solidarity Fund $ 1,803,746.09 (called soy Fund)" for the year 2010.

Furthermore, the investigation noted that the municipality does not exercise its "duty as Agent of Withholding Economic Activities, according to the provisions of the Revenue Department of the Province of Salta."

Indoors, everything looks pretty much the same. Speaking of the Accounting Department of Aguaray, the Audit says the area "does not record the implementation of expenditure in accordance with the regulations." And something similar happens in the local treasury, where a Daily Book is "incomplete, because it includes only revenues, and emits no details of amounts settled and paid," explains the research.

The report also adds that the treasury of the City "does not have a fixed background or a petty cash system formally implemented to meet the expenditure of little significance and of daily character." Nor "surprise cash counts on existing funds" are performed in the public reserves.

And if resources are concerned, the control body, which analyzed 2010 and the first half of 2011, also noted that in the figures for those periods the budgetary implementations items comprising the budget to the amounts that accrue are not compared with the municipality. This operation, explains the report, would be useful "to assess the degree of compliance of the Government Plan" which promptly received the approval of the local city council.

Moreover, the Audit found that, in certain operations, the accounting community is located on both sides of the counter. According to the survey: "The Accounting Department issues and records checks with which we proceed to the cancellation of payment orders formed from the same Accounting Department, which is a weakness of internal control, violating the principle of organization of the opposition interest."

And in the same area the "acceptance of bills' A 'from suppliers, was visualized (regardless of which) the Public Sector in the nature of Subject Exempt in Value Added Tax and supports only invoices type' B 'or' C '."

Fees

With respect to the hiring of consultants for legal, accounting and public work areas, the Municipality of Aguaray "has not provided the background of competitions merits or review of recognized competence and experience, demonstrable reliably," says the Audit, which goes "to the detriment of Article 20 of Law 6838 Procurement System of the Province."

These advisers (and other areas) were formulated contracts involving an amount more than the recognition of expenses. The issue is that, in some cases, it was not detailed what the concept justifying those extra amounts were.

As an example, the report details the case of an architect who has a contract with a monthly salary of $3,200 plus the cost recognition, which amounts to a total of $5,050 "with no detail of subscriber’s concepts." Same goes for legal counsel: the contract is for $2,300, but this amount climbs to $3,896 for expenses recognized, which also have their corresponding detail.

And there was a warrant for payment to a lawyer for the service of extrajudicial collections and various activities, for the sum of $ 95,770.80, although "there is no detail of the efforts they make on the percentages applied," concludes the Watchdog.

Contracts and Tenders

The Salta Audit analyzed some expenditures made by the Municipality of Aguaray, as for the maintenance of public lighting. In that sense, "it is observed that the electrical inputs were acquired by direct purchase, for amounts of $ 45,121.46 and $ 64,171.45, as it was appropriate to convene Price Competition and competitive bidding, respectively."

In addition, a purchase of material inputs that were incorporated into the construction of a landscaped space that links Quemes Hospital and Adolfo Correo Argentino was examined. In the operation "they did not observe the procedures established by Law 6,838-procurement system for $ 32,679.30 and $ 32,945.05, (where) corresponded the summon Price Competition".

Another irregularity was observed in the "purchasing material inputs that were incorporated into the work of Playon Deportivo Capiazutti, (that) did not observe the established procedures (the Act), in the amounts of $ 62,515.10 and $ 175,045.35, respectively; when a call for bid what was corresponded.

What also caught the attention of the auditors were the "purchases of material inputs that were incorporated into the work of renovation of the square Eva Peron, in the amounts of $ 35,775.00 and $ 92,325.68, (where) call Direct Contracting with Price Witness corresponded."

Chance

In Aguaray’s numbers there is an item "Esco Automotive Plan" contained in the Budget Execution with the heading "Other Expenditures" for the years 2010, for $ 166,525, and 2011 for $ 63,700.

On this, the technicians stressed that "there is no authorization on these operations, capitalization contracts and savings, for which funds of the Municipality are reversed, the effects of chance, since it provides for monthly draws and, if in case they are not favored, they proceed to refund subscriber’s values without an update, and the net of administrative expenses and commissions, which will eventually produce harm to the public treasury, not authorized by any contract.” And, they added: "In view of the characteristics and amount of the contract, the Local City Council intervened."

Organizational Structure and Duplicate Resolutions

To top it all off, the controlling body of Salta stated that "the Municipality of Aguaray has not approved or formally implemented its organizational structure so as to allow the functional areas and determine the responsibilities of each agent in the Commune.”

They also noted "the existence of resolutions with the same numbers and different content." And the report highlights the case of two other resolutions, with the numbers 469 and 619, through which social assistance is granted. These documents, according to experts, "are incomplete in its wording, as they contain none of the beneficiaries’ ID numbers.”

Conclusion: Abstention

From these observations, the Audit of Salta declined to comment regarding the reports on budget execution of resources and expenditure for the 2010financial year and the first half of 2011, "because of not being able to ensure the fairness, integrity and sufficiency of the figures involved in the report mentioned before."

The same result was obtained in the analysis of the Situation by the States Treasury also counted up to December 31, 2010 and June 30, 2011. The Watchdog explained that this was because the City "has not provided those reports."

There was also another disclaimer of opinion regarding the states debt for 2010 and the first half of 2011 "because of failing to ensure the fairness, integrity and property of the figures involved in these reports."

Regarding the operation of the Asset Management System of the Municipality, the Audit of Salta said it is "inefficient and ineffective and does not contribute to safeguarding and the proper use" of the properties of the Commune.

On the side of the operation of internal control, and considering the importance of the remarks, "it’s evident that there is a situation of weakness, which may lead to encouraging or materializing various irregularities, to the detriment of the audited entity", completed the Watchdog.