After Eight Years the Construction of the Argentine Mint Is Still Incomplete
<p><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">In 1999 a construction company received $ 631,950 in advances to reshape the local mint. The National Audit Office said the works were stopped with just one level of implementation, just 26%. While legal action was taken, the company is bankrupt so the recovery of the amount claimed would be "highly unlikely”.</span></p> <div> </div>
The General Audit Office revealed that the Society of the State Mint paid $ 174,126 and $ 457,824 to a company in regard to "advances to suppliers" and "work in progress" in order to remodel and install a printing machine. However, the watchdog said that "after 8 years the work is still incomplete.”
The payments were made to the Construcciones Taddia Company for the construction of several works in the local mint. The report, published this year, states that "the manufacturer failed to comply with the execution of the work by about 74%" and notes that "the electrical and thermo-mechanical installations, which constituted the bulk of recruitment were not made." Despite this, the Mint "worked in different tasks in order to install the printer in question."
Finally the breaches caused the Society to carry forward legal actions against the construction company for damages in "breaching the contract" and, as reported by the auditors, they also requested that "Taddia SA pay an amount of approximately $ 900,000 ". However, the construction company is bankrupt and "the collection of this sum would be highly unlikely."
The AGN observed, moreover, that the authorization approving the contract "is generally performed by different officials who have no authority to do so since the amounts involved in the authorization of expenditures significantly exceed those determined in the regulations established by the Society."
Finally, the report mentions that in the December 2008 balance made by the Mint, amounting to a value of $ 174,126 “the delivered amount is only advancement for materials for the buildings" but not the "$ 457,724 related to work in progress."
Inventory of "Fixed assets"
The audit indicated that the inventory of the physical assets of the Mint "is outdated," but noted that "it continues to advance in surveys and are then being loaded into a control system with fixed asset allocation of liability of such goods".