The General Audit’s Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish) reported that there are 74 border crossings with Chile in over 5,308 kilometers, however, "only in the Tour Site Cristo Redentor are checkpoints done in a jointly manner" with issues concerning customs, traffic, immigration, and health matters with the neighboring country.

The Cristo Redentor border crossing is the "most important" of the paths that connect Argentina and Chile. Located near seaports, San Antonio and Valparaiso, in 2009 35.6% of people and 61.9% of the vehicles passed though that crossing into Chile, according to the data given by the National Guard to the AGN. Of the latter, 95.91% were cargos and the rest were individuals and passengers.

The Integrated Control Areas (ACI, for its acronym in Spanish) were regulated in 1997 when the two countries signed the Treaty on Integrated Border Controls. The goal was to establish "simpler and faster inspections" and empowered the parties to "establish precincts, to one side of the border or international boundary or overlapping on both sides of the border." According to the National Audit "they have not yet achieved integrated controls" insisting that the progress has been “basic”. 

Types of Controls 

At the Cristo Redentor border controls "they have achieved the highest degree of functional complementarity" because "both agencies have identical purposes and use common international customs nomenclatures, which helps improve integration." Between April and December 2010, a period in which the audit carried out the fieldwork, it was observed that "the data that is uploaded onto a computer by one country can be viewed by the other, speeding up customs clearance, but not necessarily working simultaneously."

Another of the items found by the AGN was in the border location of Uspallata, Mendoza, "was installing a large scanner that will benefit checks."

However, the observations were not as good for health inspections. For assessing people "the absence of an integrated work" was detected, that part of our country would be for the Ministry of Health, who directly "has no presence at the border." Animal products and plant control tasks are not performed in sync since "interest to do so is given only when the goods enter one’s country.” 

On the entry of agrochemicals banned or of restricted use, the auditors stated that "integrated control procedures are not applied."

Regarding migration, the AGN reported that the work is "not integrated" because in Argentina it is performed by the National Migration Directorate (DNM, for its acronym in Spanish) and Chile's Investigative Police, both entities "do not share information", the only thing they have in common is their physical space. The audit also noted as a factor of failure in joint controls the movement of people, each agency "has a different institutional nature" because "DNM is a civil entity and Chile’s police manage information for internal security in their country."

ACI’s  Checkpoints 

While the Roque Carranza engineering unit, in Argentina, is "appropriate in terms of size and infrastructure to cater to passenger cars and freight transport passing by" the AGN stated that the same is not true of the Libertadores of Chile. This center located in an unfavorable geographical area, being surrounded by mountains and being prone to avalanches, "is insufficient to meet traffic flow." The inside of the unit, the auditors expressed, "is not enough" so that the Chilean authorities "were forced to install control booths outdoors." As "the ability to accommodate people is also reduced," the Argentine customs had to accommodate their personal "container", while the neighboring country did so in a hostel nearby.

On the control area of the Border location of Uspallata, the watchdog said that it is "incomplete and inadequate" because trucks bound for Chile have a stop at the Center Los Libertadores and they are again controlled by the office and the Agriculture and Livestock Service "causing delays in the movement of vehicles." For AGN, the consequence of this situation is that "countries fail to agree to delete or move this checkpoint".

When Will It Be Complete? 

While it is true that in a previous report the AGN had found that no crossings had implemented the ICA, the installation of integrated control of Cristo Redentor remains insufficient for more than 5000 kilometers of border. As stated in the report of the federal watchdog it was informed to the audit team that Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego, and Mendoza are the next crossing that will be carried out jointly with Chile, "but are not yet implemented." Meanwhile, the Directorate General of American Politics, which belongs to the Foreign Ministry, reported that there is a plan agreed between both nations "in which both are expected to study the extension of controls to Sico, San Francisco and Agua Negra." However, the auditors "did not have evidence on the implementation of these agreed studies or their results."