A report by the Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish), the Institute of Management City Housing (IVC) the construction of houses in the villages 1.11.14, 3 and Barrio Zavaleta, was "ineffective, insufficient, and inefficient" and it showed the "nonexistent planning before a serious problem," as the housing deficit that records the City Capital. 

The watchdog relieved the work done during 2007 in three neighborhoods and found "breaches" in contract terms a "high gap" between supply and demand for housing, and a "low safeguarding of the public resources used." So that price redetermination contracts, the square meter of social housing ended up being more expensive than the "luxurious and palatial" homes.

Neighborhood by Neighborhood

The shanty town 3 is in the south of the city, between Avenida Acosta, Somellera, Lacarra and Janer. In 2007, precisely the period analyzed by the AGCBA, a report by the Union of Buenos Aires had indicated that there were 2,225 families in the settlement. By that time, the CVI reported having 1,176 houses "in various stages of execution." While the offer represented just over 50% of the demand, 220 homes were actually completed, i.e., only 9.98% of what was needed in the neighborhood. 

The construction of these 220 homes was provided by four companies: Vidogar SA, Teximco SA, SA Vezzato, and Raffo and Mazieres SA, which had a term of 14 months to deliver the units. However, the audit report notes that it took between 38 and 41 months. According to the firms, the executions were delayed mainly by the "lack of fulfillment in terms of external networks of utility infrastructure and pavements," a work which was not foreseen in the contract and that the IVC entrusted to third parties. The AGCBA stressed that "the administration tendered works without inclusion in the final draft due to the links connecting infrastructure (and) also performed in parallel for the purpose of recruitment, at the end (the houses) could be delivered 'with all services running and turnkey "as stipulated in the contracts.

The report, approved this year, added that this led to the "cessation of works of architecture, which led to high levels of arrears and claims of companies for 'unproductive spending, which were recognized by the Institute." Thus, the original investment stipulated for entrepreneurship, had to add $ 4,466,332.09.

To illustrate the "high cost variance," the AGCBA compared the price per square meter in the houses at the beginning and end of the work, and found that social housing registered higher values than houses "in comfortable categories, luxurious, and sumptuous.”

When work began in ghetto 3, the square meter ranged between $ 1,740 and $ 1,815 depending on the company, but the final price reached $ 2,725 and $ 3,587. And, by then, had INDEC reported that a square meter of luxurious and sumptuous homes was worth between $2,700 and $3,300.

The shanty town 1.11.14, meanwhile, is also located in the south of Buenos Aires, between Avenue Perito Moreno, Varela, Club DAOM, Ries and Vedia. The Trustee of the City noted that between 1993 and 2007 the population of the settlement grew 308%, from 2,452 to nearly 10,000 families, about 40 thousand inhabitants. In turn, the Housing Institute provided 691 households, 6.91% of the demand and of the total, 160 units were completed. Therefore, the neighborhoods needs were covered only to 1.6%. 

The project was conducted by the company Bricons SA which undertook to supply the houses in a span of 18 months and the original amount of the contract amounted to $ 5,492,492.74. But the actual duration was 68 months, and "successive price redeterminations, and recognition of additional deadweight loss (caused by intrusions property that occurred in 2006)," the works cost rose to $20,928,664.91. Also, the value per square meter increased from $ 780 to $ 2,969.86 between the beginning and end of the work.

The Core Housing Zavaleta is in the neighborhood of Barracas and is bounded by Amancio Alcorta Avenues, Zavaleta, Iriarte and a street with no name. The last census was conducted by the Institute of Housing in 2002 and established the existence of 577 modules with 746 households and a total population of 2,814 people: "The housing conditions and infrastructure meet the same precarious build of a shantytown" the AGCBA explains. 

The watchdog assessed building 276 homes that were for a bid that began in 2001, with a concept of "single room or loft, fully finished with sanitary unit." Although the Attorney General had advised the City that the contract specifications had "deficiencies" and "corresponded to rescind the pre-award" Bricons SA businesses and Vidogar SA work began in August 2003 and the provisional acceptance was in 2007. 

The audit points out that the delay in completion of the project was due, again, to the "not execution on time of the neighborhood infrastructure (water and sewer network)."

In this case, there were also successive price redeterminations, recognition of additional and unproductive expenditures and contract, which initially was $ 9,403,680.62, reached the final figure of $ 45,735,117.38. The square meter, meanwhile, went from costing $ 774 to $ 3,766. 

In all three districts, the AGCBA holds that the provisions of a decree of necessity and urgency of 2003 which was regulated in the same year by another decree, 2119 were not provided. Under these rules, to request a price redetermination, the contractor "should not record decline in the pace of work or other breaches of the obligations assumed." But the watchdog concluded that this requirement was "not exposed" in various orders of readjustments of values that the companies made. Even more, the minutes that approved price redeterminations, did not contain investments or curves corresponding to the new work plans.