According to a report from the General Audit Office (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish), Customs in Cordoba, Salta, La Plata and Posadas do not have a unified manual to control the price of exports that are made from these Regional Offices.

Customs has the authority to supervise the export prices to avoid undercutting in such operations. For that, you can take as a reference the figures provided in the Valuation Agreement, a system of "fair, uniform and neutral" price set by the World Trade Organization.

However, the AGN contends that the Regional Offices have no "guiding grids" that help with the steps, "which facilitates the proliferation of different standards of implementation."

Undercutting exports affects the economy from the tax, because less tax revenue generated export duties and equivalent to more evasion income tax. In addition, it suffers financially, from lower foreign exchange earnings and their impact on trade balances and payments.

The Watchdog explained that, "except in court cases", the regional departments of Cordoba, La Plata and Posadas do not compare the export prices with the international securities through market analysis or Internet- or information crosses with other customs.

But the agencies also have problems of human resources and work items. In Posadas, "there is a considerable shortfall in the number of staff both administrative and professional," also "has no specific training," says the audit. And the tools are "obsolete" in fact "the criminal system works under DOS, because of its age, it is lacking elementary functions," says the report.

On the side of Córdoba, there are few actors and directors, along with their team’s headquarters, there is no continuity: between 2002 and 2006 there were five changes of authorities, "which does not allow a scenario of a planning or favors coordination between key areas.”

In Salta the scenario is no better. The AGN observed that there is not enough space and the tools needed for the normal activities of the Directorate are "slim" no cell phones, cars, free Internet access or auditors, agents cannot work with emails and "there are operational constraints for the operation of mobile scanner and the Narcotics Division and Specialized Research." Also, the Legal Division does not have enough lawyers and the "absence of basic computer equipment" prevents tracking of court files that are processed in the administrative courts.

From the operations that were made from the Regional Salta, the Watchdog noted a "significant absence of customs regulations for the export of software." The transport path for these products is the internet and also have "substantial difficulties" to supervise it, "there is no legislation that provides for, or have evidence that they are being controlled," explained the auditors.

The AGN report, approved this year on 2006 data, indicates the amount of exports that are made from the four Regional Offices:

• Córdoba, which also includes Customs Tucuman, La Rioja and Tinogasta, made 78,553 export transactions for a value of 1,728 million.

• Salta, covering Jujuy, La Quiaca, Oran and Pocitos, made 8,034 operations for $742 million.

• Posadas, including Iguazu, Bernardo de Irigoyen, Oberá, San Javier, Paso de los Libres, and Sao Tome made 53,104 operations performed for 1.158 million dollars.

• La Plata, centralizing transactions in Campana, Colon, Concordia, Concepcion del Uruguay and Gualeguaychú, made 77,302 operations for 9.842 million dollars.