In these three customs, where over a third of the country's exports are concentrated, the Audit General’s Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish) found understaffing, processing delays, and even "procedural inactivity". The terminals concerned are Bahía Blanca, San Lorenzo, and Rosario, ports that only in 2009 managed a total of $25.742 million, mainly related to grain and mineral concentrate.

The watchdog issued a report on the 2009 administration’s data which was adopted in June this year. In researching various aspects of the work it was analyzed in the terminal, for example, the operation of the scales used to weigh grains to be shipped. These devices, which are owned by the port operators, must be accredited by the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI, for its acronym in Spanish) and the Directorate General of Customs is responsible for checking these permissions. On this, the report written by the AGN states they "did not detect any computer registry that issues timely warnings of the maturity of the respective allotments."

In addition, at the customs surveyed there are no "permanent scanners for controlling tasks," the technicians explained. Another way of overseeing the operations is by remote imaging, although the auditors noted that in the Bahia Blanca customs they "do not have that equipment". Meanwhile, at the San Lorenzo terminal, they "do have web images obtained by cameras, but would be better if the bandwidth was expanded."

If it’s technical tools we are speaking of, the AGN revealed that "those responsible" for the ports visited by the audit "have made requests to improve computer equipment, but have yet to receive a response," and noted that "the collector of customs of San Lorenzo stated that the computers that are available in the main office are obsolete and inadequate". 

The computer equipment that customs has uses a software called "Maria", which can record and monitor operations. Reissuing past research, the report notes that "this system was the subject of previous audits and concluded, among other things, that its use was not friendly, nor flexible, and, that it cannot modify specific exports or the corresponding amounts". Specifically, the AGN highlights two limitations of the "Maria" program: first, it does not register automatically the "weighing" made in the scales of the ports and on the other, the software "does not issue alerts to help manage the weight from exceeding within the time committed to carry out exports or the relevant quantities.”  So in the customs audited these checkups are done manually.

However, there are other areas where manual controls are also performed. According to the audit, this occurs with the system of traceability of Litigation Summaries, because the mechanism "does not meet the current operational needs" of the terminal. Where is this situation recorded? Monitoring the expiration of procedural deadlines since the system does not have alerts on this area.

In this sense, the AGN noted "procedural delay" and "delays in processing summaries." For example, at the office of San Lorenzo, a process of fine against YPF for $84,386 had been initiated on August 18th, 2009, but the company recently was notified on June 28th, 2010 and since then has "not recorded another procedural activity ".

Something similar was discovered at the office of Rosario, with two penalties: one was the company Vicentín SAIC, for $121,605, in a process started on April 12th 2007, although the company was recently notified on October 21th, 2008. The other was awarded to the firm Nenuca SA, for $157,686. In this case, the record started on February 25th, 2008 but the notice was delivered on August 12th, 2010. The report concludes that in neither of the procedural summaries’ activities were recorded.

And in the terminal of Bahía Blanca, the Audit found "a significant body of reports without opening a corresponding summary", which means that even after the customs wrongdoings the research process did not even begin. In this regard, the head of the Section Summaries of Bahia Blanca told the AGN team that "the reasons lie in the large number of complaints and the inability to cope with the volume of complaints when they are understaffed”.

With regard to the latter point, the research says that "those responsible (customs) have noted the inadequate staffing and appropriate profiles for the control tasks."

How Is Export Controlled?

As for the control of products leaving the country, the Audit explained that one of the customs’ duties is to "sample analysis". Briefly: the Customs takes a sample of goods and sends it to INTI for analysis. Then, the result of that sample with the statement by the exporter is confronted. After inquiring about this process, the technicians stressed the "delays in of the results of the analysis." In the office of San Lorenzo, for example, there were delays of "about three months, in the case of the office of Rosario it was 45 days late, and at the custom of Bahia Blanca they said there were "normal delays".

There is another kind of control, such as the so-called "counterverifications". In this procedure customs checks with mathematical calculations the amount of goods in question, both before and after shipment. On this point, the AGN adds: "From the review in the office of San Lorenzo it shows that there are operations based on a manual (in which) there lacks certain information and documentation, and the percentage of completed operations has little significant compared to the tons of merchandise shipped. "