The Comptroller General of the Republic of Costa Rica (CGR) noted in its report that 12,000 million Costa Rican settlers were allocated (124 million pesos) for the construction of 70 Care Centers and Child Development (CECUDI, for its acronym in Spanish) between 2010 and 2012. Until late last year, only two were finalized, those operated by the city of Cartago.

Because of these delays, "the people must wait longer to be benefited, considering the social risks involved." The CECUDI is administered by various municipalities and is aimed at children and families living in poverty and social vulnerability, especially for mothers who require insertion into the labor market or the education system and do not have sufficient resources. Can these people wait?

It is clear that the program must give each municipality 180 million Costa Rican colones for the construction and equipping of the center and 8,400 for each child attending the center, equivalent to 1.8 million and 41 Argentine pesos, respectively. Since "there is no law requiring the rotation of money, each municipality is forced to develop different options, such as the service charge." The latter would "limit the entry of children living in a family in extreme poverty."

The audit revealed "slow progress in the construction, equipment, and operation of CEDUCI by the untimely transfer of resources, delays in the recruitment process for construction, inconvenience to the transfers of land on behalf of the Municipality, inexperience, and ignorance of some officials of the Program in all its phases."

The CGR said that "seven of the 15 local governments that received funds in 2011 took more than six months in open recruitment procedures of the centers." In fact, at the end of the audit, there was "a case that had not begun hiring and two in which it had not awarded the construction work."

To this situation, we must add that "some areas lack basic services such as water, heat, and electricity, and the streets have no storm drainage system." Others, "fail to meet minimum security standards, and its location should not affect children on their way to and from the establishments."

Because of all of this, the Comptroller General of Costa Rica recommended in relation to municipalities, "that they use the report to take the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of the program standards." He also suggested that "the results of their work will be disseminated by the appropriate means and reach the officials involved in the project to make decisions that lead to success".