The General Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish) prepared a special study to group the comments that appeared in their reports made between 2004 and 2007 on the operation of projects financed by international credit agencies. That task of systematization, it emerged that the irregularities in the procurement of consulting services are "commonplace" in such endeavors and, at the same time, in recent years decreased the shortcomings linked to the monitoring of the works performed.

The AGN’s report analyzed 196 audits prepared by the Control Department Indebtedness with international financial organizations on 78 projects determined by the Inter-American Development bank (IDB), World Bank (WB) and International Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The total value of these projects amounts to U$S 19.879,8 million. The amounts audited, meanwhile, accounted for 36.2% of this total, U$S 7.199,6 million.

The Watchdog classified their observations into eight categories: expenditures on goods, equipment and services; consultancies; training; works; administrative and accounting procedures; fund management; implementation of the program in question; and others. In this submission, the Auditor.info summarized the items in consulting expenses and construction works.

Expenditure on Consulting Services

Among the analyzed audits, most of the observations were related to consultancy expenses, on the one hand with the outsourcing process, such as "breach of guidelines established by the financial institutions, or national rules matters" and, on the other, with irregularities in payments to consultants, such as delays, disbursements with different figures than the agreed and lack of invoices.

For the AGN, the shortcomings in the processes of hiring consultants reflected in their reports are "generalized". "Only in 2005, says the study- such observations were presented in 49% of the projects audited, the lowest mark of the period (2004-2007)." Thereafter, the irregularities appeared in 56% of investigations in 2006 and 70% in 2007.

Regarding how the consulting services were paid, the special study indicates a reiteration of findings and release of payments before - or even when their reports weren’t even approved -, or "payment date preceding the filing of bills." "In all the observable aspects found in this area by more than 40% of the audited projects, with a peak in 2007, when they appeared in 56% of the cases," said the AGN.
However, the agency highlighted another theme that was repeated in its research: "The observations related to the absence of triads (consultants), or agreements signed and starting tasks prior to the adoption of administrative acts dates (resolutions) that they supported are rife in externally funded projects."
 

The Construction Works

Moreover, the comments contained in the work of the AGN linked to expenditure on construction sites, deal with procedures for hiring companies, breaches in the agreements (such as delays or unjustified executions changes), and deficiencies in the monitoring and certification of enterprises.

"The most significant thing in this chapter is that there are observations related to labor recruitment processes in more than 20% of the audited projects," says the report. Beyond the AGN it recognizes that the performance is lower than in other chapters, such as that dealt with consulting services, it highlights the importance of the amounts at stake in implementing a venture.

Breaches of labor contracts listed in 18.9% of the reports of 2004 and 15.2% of 2005.

However, as an "encouraging sign", the AGN noted that since 2006 there was a lowering of the number of observations relating to monitoring and certification of works. In that year, those failings appeared in almost 20% of the audits, while in 2007 it was found in 7.3% of the investigations.