Created in 1998, the City of Buenos Aires has an area that is responsible for controlling the quality of the environment: the Environmental Protection Agency (APRA, for its acronym in Spanish).

According to the decree ordering its creation, 49/08, it is "an independent, flexible, and non-bureaucratic organ, that programs, plans, and implements the necessary measures to comply with environmental policy actions" of the City of Buenos Aires. However, the competence of the APRA is limited only to established violations by its agents. A report by the Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) states that if any environmental foul worthy of a fine application is detected, then another agency makes its appearance, the Governmental Agency Control (AGC, for its acronym in Spanish), which then applies the fine and keeps the money.

According to the Audit, this scenario generates "objective weakness in the Environmental Protection Agency" for "superposition of police power" between the two areas involved.

"In the system formed, APRA plans and implements controls, being detached from the administrative decision, which is carried by the AGC (through the Directorate of Inspection and Control -DGFICO-)," says the report, which was approved this year, adding that "the situation is compounded by the lack of formal channels of communication and information that would allow awareness about what was done and its feedback."

The auditors also commented that "the double competition between agencies and the untying of APRA in the final link, not only generates inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the system itself, but also conceptually equated 'environmental failure' with any other type of failure, devaluing the issue (environmental), typical of the cities in these times."In The City's Cemeteries the Highly Located Niches Are Not Exhumed Due To a Lack of Equipment

The Auditor General of the City said that for the maintenance of cemeteries there is a "significant divestiture". While the number of furnaces for cremations increased, the bodies in the niches found at the top of the galleries lack elevators and there for are not exhumed. Sometimes the employees perform the task manually. The facilities, in poor condition, do not protect the safety of personnel.

The General Directorate of Cemeteries (DGCem) of the City of Buenos Aires has an "inadequate budget" for conservation and renovation. The Buenos Aires Audit noted that in recent years there was a "lack of investment" and that the draft budget prepared by the agency does not contemplate the real needs of the site, in times to come, the situation of the cemetery "will become increasingly precarious”.

In this regard, the report adopted this year on 2010 data indicates that of the 18 loads lifting equipment is in the Chacarita cemetery galleries, "just five" are running, the rest are "down due to a lack of replacement parts or maintenance. "The watchdog said that therefore, staff must perform, "unsafely and substandard" tasks manually, like burials and exhumation even coffins placed in niches above, without the necessary equipment.

The same report states that there were cases of families who decided to cremate the bodies of their relatives who were previously in niches, and although they paid for they make cremation, the task "could not be met" due to the same problems, "because of a lack of operation equipment." Even "new burials cannot be completed due to the shortcomings mentioned above”.

According to the records of locals cemeteries DGCem, provided to the Audit, in recent years there was "an increase in the amount of voluntary cremations", so to expand the operational capacity, dependence acquired a new oven battery. However, despite that it is operated in "satisfactory" condition, the report states that "the building is in poor environmental conditions to protect employees, neighbors who attend and preserve the investment made."

It is noteworthy that audit said the crematory process "does not have a particularized rules regulating the activity" causing "lack of control by enforcement authorities." From the analysis it also shows that "the cremation activity is not included in the Table of Uses Effective Urban Planning Code". Moreover, the AGCBA said most of the underground galleries "have no elevators in operation to alleviate the need for pulse transfer to the bodies." That is when the coffins are carried upstairs by relatives and not by elevators. There are also complications for physical accessibility for people with disabilities.

The report also states that in Chacarita there are areas that are "totally destroyed", such as the English garden courtyard Great Pantheon, due to "a flooding water table."

The Cemetery of Flores 

In the cemetery of Flores there are "security problems", there is "widespread vandalism affecting the heritage", but there is no "right answer" to repair the damage, "like the replacement of drainage grates and brass doorknobs of the Vaults ". The report adds that the latter is close to several villages and settlements, and that the people living there, "use the bathroom cemetery, affecting its conservation."

Finally, the City Watchdog added that "we must adequately provide for" the "burials belonging to other communities practicing their rituals to honor the dead" on the premises. According to the agency, in the last 20 years unconventional rituals increased.

In addition, the watchdog said that "the peace that must reign in a cemetery is affected by the large flow of pedestrian traffic in Balbastro Street. The people, who descend from the metro, walk across the northern part of the cemetery."

Regarding the money from fines, the Audit stated that even though the Protection Agency carries out inspections, the Government Control Agency considers those resources as "its own". Therefore, the report concludes that it would be "reasonable for both areas to share a certain percentage of the proceeds."