Sweatshops returned to be in the public eye after two children, ages 7 and 10 years, died in a fire in late April. But the Auditor General of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) has been warning for years, and on several occasions, the flaws in the work of the Department of Labor Protection (DGPDT).

Although the Watchdog warned the City of Buenos Aires in 2012 to, a new work approved in late 2014 shows that nothing changed.

Through December 2013 The DGPDT "had failed to solve the administrative problems that tarnish its management". Among the weaknesses it is noted that "the work of labor inspection showed extensive time in days for the different stages of the process." The consequences range from "the delay in raising monetary fines," to the report notes and preventable deaths, as reflected by reality.

The work of auditors also noted "delays in reporting the results of the inspection and the lack of monitoring of releases of alleged offenders."

Already in 2010 the analysis had reported "delays by Management in formalizing the results of the inspection process ranging from 209 to 436 days."

The same happened with notices to the inspected workshops, "while the law provides for a period of 5 days in average delays, 20 days were recorded."

The original function of the Directorate is to supervise, monitor and penalize breaches of the rules of health, hygiene, and social security in general and the various regulatory provisions of collective agreements.

To that end, behind closed doors it has an area of Household Work, which is responsible for regularizing workers in the textile industry; one of Hygiene and Safety, which oversees the establishment and checks the compliance force on the subject.

On the other hand, the report says "the need for the management to have a computer system that allows to know the number of labor inspections carried out, the learned summaries and the amount of violators of labor standards."

Law 3019 declares emergency labor and infrastructure in small and micro enterprises in the garment industry, footwear and related industries. Also it provides subsidies for those enterprises that meet the requirements ruled.

Despite this, "the law was not regulated" even though Article 16 stipulated that it should be carried out within 30 days. The standard was created in 2009, the account is easy.

In this regard, the AGCBA stressed the "imperative" that the Executive Branch of the City proceeds to apply the regulation applicable to "give effect to the provision which establishes rights and obligations in order to address the state of emergency and infrastructure work" affecting this category.

Everything Stays the Same

Back in 2010, the year audited in the report adopted in 2012, the AGCBA stated that "there was no Manual of Policies or Procedures and Organization" and detailing that generated a "untidiness that weakens organizational productivity management." The Audit, once again, warned of this situation in 2014.

In the last audit, "faults in the custody of the actions of labor inspections" were detected. In fact, the Watchdog "could not count on 19 of the 95 records requested to do their job." In previous work the AGCBA "lacked 44 bundles that had been requested for analysis."