Public Employees Change Their Private Cars with Money from a Fund for Productive Projects
<p>It was in Mendoza during 2005 and informed by the Provincial Court of Accounts. They are three agents, two of permanent employment and one contracted who received credits of between 7 thousand and 10 thousand pesos and argued that the cars were destined to the works of the entity that administered the "Fund for the transformation and growth." The owners of that organization were fined $500.</p>
In 2005, three public employees of Mendoza changed their private cars with money from a fund destined to the development of productive projects. The data appears in a ruling of the Provincial Court of Accounts, published in the Official Gazette on April 29th of last year.
According to the ruling, the agents are Eduardo Fernández, permanent employee, and María Soledad Perelló, a contractor, who received loans of $10 thousand each, while Claudia Astudillo, also permanent employee, obtained a loan of $ 7 thousand. The money corresponds to the Financing Fund and Public and Private Investment, an initiative designed to carry out livestock, agroindustrial and mining enterprises and, in particular, to provide anti-harvest meshes to the cultivated areas.
The project depends directly on the Governor of Mendoza and is managed by the "Provincial Administrator of the Fund for Transformation and Growth", an entity made up of the Ministers of Production, Technology and Innovation, Finance and Infrastructure, Housing and Transportation. The Watchdog ruled on the accountability for 2005 presented by the managing body.
The employees involved, for their part, stated that the loans were "not granted for private purposes" and that the money was not alien to the objectives established in the law of 1993, 6071, which created the Fund for Transformation. From the Court of Auditors, the Review Accountant, stated that "the granting of loans intended to replace private vehicles of contractors and employees of the entity, does not fit into any article of the Law" and further stated that the fact is "expressly Prohibited by the statute of the public employee."
Meanwhile, the Secretariat Rapporteur was of the opinion that the agents' argument cannot be considered sufficient to save the fund administrator from a sanction. Thus, the control body decided to apply a fine of $500 to the executive director of the body, Jorge Luis Alberto Tieppo, the deputy director of administration, Carlos Alberto Monforte, and the deputy director of financing, Lisandro Nieri. Likewise, such officials will not be able to get rid of the charges until they have documented evidence that the employees canceled all of their loans.