Such was the magnitude of the findings, that members of the Auditor General's Office (AGN) rated their own investigation on the use of agrochemicals as a "lapidary report". According to this research, in Argentina 22 million GM hectares are sprayed with pesticides. The National Health Service and Food Quality (SENASA) is the agency that supervises and checks how pesticides are being applied.

According to the audit, SENASA "cannot fulfill its tasks in the correct manner". This causes the agency’s performance to be classified as "poor", not just because they lack standards, but because they don’t abide by their own rules.

Some of the limitations of SENASAs work have to do with what AGN called "legislative anarchy". A limitation is that those 22 million hectares of GM crops cover 12 provinces: Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, Santiago del Estero, San Luis, Chaco, Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, La Pampa, and Corrientes. According to the report, this "disparity of jurisdictions" involves many levels of control (national, provincial, and municipal) that for the auditors leaves only one question in mind: "How do you apply the norms when each district has its own set of rules regarding the spraying policy?”.

According to the regulations, there is a provision in 1964 which states that "any person who works in pest control must be enrolled in the national records." The administration that deals with the records is the Registry of Companies of Ground and Aerial Agrochemicals. 

On this point, the auditors noted that "the record is incomplete and biased", because even though the registration process is mandatory, "in practice, it seems more like an option."


AGN states that the administration "lacks an integrated, comprehensive, and systematic database" that could contain the information of all registered enterprises, and that SENASA "only has three separate lists with three different designs."

In addition, companies don’t meet the legal requirements needed for registration in the Records, "nor is there a notification of compliance required by the Administration," therefore no sanctions are applied for the “noncompliant" firms.

Therefore, the "lack of coordination" between jurisdictions appears as one of the limits SENASA is dealing with today. The report shows that there is no cross-checking between the national registry of companies that apply pesticides and the lists the provinces hold.

Health Prevention

Moreover, the Audit also noted that in 2009 an agency called the National Commission on Agrochemicals Research (NCAR) was founded to function under the guidance of the Ministry of Health.

The agency’s responsibility was to investigate, prevent, and provide care and treatment for people exposed to the use of agrochemicals, with the overall purpose of promoting public health. However, according to AGN, "after the year 2010 there is no evidence of progress in the Committee’s work".  

Simultaneously, a Directorate of SENASA, the branch of Agrochemicals, Veterinary, and Food coordinated three different working groups with the help of the NCAR.

The first one, called "GT 1", dedicated to the research and development of knowledge, in 2009 elaborated a report glyphosate, but since then there is no record of other tasks or conferences.

Meanwhile, the "GT 2" developed a "federal program to strengthen local systems of pesticide control". Despite its ambitious name, the plan was never executed.

The last and third group was the "GT 6", they had begun to implement a plan of "instruction in the responsible use of agrochemicals-CURE-" but the last record we have on the progress of the work dates from October 2010.

The audit concludes that "the permanence of the NCAR would allow the state to have specific data and analysis so that they could act preemptively". They also add that, if this where to happen, the nation could have "their own scientific investigation and not rely of the information submitted by interested third parties.”

This report was approved and published on the last months of 2011 and it came as a result of the "participatory planning" mechanism. It was when the federal watchdog convened civil organizations so they could suggest issues that could benefit from an investigation. 

 The importance of the subject in question is emphasized within the report: "Agrochemical pollution ends up being a silent poison because its repeated exposure and long term contact can cause serious damage and/or death, this, as unfortunate as it might be, transforms this issue into a popular one,  thus naturalizing a disease that everyone is talking about".

The report concludes with the fact that the total number of people exposed to agrochemicals is 12 million, even though we are “not counting the affected population of the major cities in each province.” The term “lapidary” appears in the report because SENASA "could not refute the observations" stated by AGN.