In one year, the Undersecretary of Cultural Management of Buenos Aires increased its budget by 521%
<p>According to the work of the audit of the City the increase recorded in 2007 under the "common activities", was caused by the lack of planning of activities at the beginning of each year, therefore, "the contracts were not in line" with the provisions of the regulations. The agency does not know how many people go to different events.</p>
Not having an annual plan of activities, during 2007 the Undersecretary of Cultural Management of the City of Buenos Aires was asking for increases in its budget and finished with a budget that exceeded by 521% the money it had available at the beginning of the year for the category "common activities."
According to a report by the Auditor General Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish), in early 2007 the agency had $ 500 thousand for this item in its budget, but the figure climbed up to $ 2,608,001. "The lack of a formalized program, outlining objectives prior to the beginning of the year, does not make it possible to measure the management of the Secretariat under analysis," the Watchdog said.
However, the AGCBA concluded that "recruitment forms were not in accordance with the stipulations of administrative procedures". For example, in the Music Day, an activity that took place in parks, squares and train stations in the City, 52% of the receipts analyzed corresponded to "artistic and production activities for which no contracts were made location of services, but were paid on presentation of invoices." In addition, it was found that in six invoices the check "is issued on behalf of a third party" and, as there is no contract involved, "they could not establish who provided the service."
Moreover, the audit looked at ten vouchers exposure Midi Minuit, who was at the Recoleta Cultural Center between November and December 2007 and found that, in two cases, the budgets submitted did not match the invoiced products; another budget which was awarded despite being greater than the offerings of its competitors; and the case of a contractor that while it did make the most suitable offer, the final amount invoiced was different from the budget that was presented.
In Mataderos, meanwhile, the report notes that "it did not meet the obligation to display the price of all merchandise sold" and that jobs do not show the numbers assigned to them. Also, permissions, data loading artisans is "incomplete", the files do not have any personal identification nor the seller or his substitute- nor did they have attached justifications of their licenses. The AGCBA stressed that signing the forms contained artisans that had been let go in 2007 but others that were active at the time of the investigation did not appear.
The monitoring agency completed its work saying that the Undersecretary of Cultural Management "does not have methods to set the number of attendees at the various events organized by the area."