In 2006, by decree, the province of Salta approved a framework contract that the company was instructed Plumada SA to deposit, file scanning, custody and logistics documentation.


A year later, the then Minister of Education agreed to digitize the bibliographic and documentary heritage Complex provincial Libraries and Archives, at the request of the coordinator of that area. The request also contained a technical and economic proposal made by the same company that signed the contract of 2006, Plumada SA.


The Auditor General of Salta reviewed the first stage of the September-2007 Digital Library Project, which is called Digitizing Funds and Collections, and found that "the service of digital heritage entrusted to Plumada, had no frame under the 2006 contract for the selection of the provider, it should have applied any of the procedures in the procurement system " in the province, i.e., called a tender.


According to the research, adopted in March of this year, the Education Minister understood that "it is not necessary to make a new contract", supported by a favorable opinion from the Ministry of Finance, which pointed to the "feasibility of framing the digitization within the framework contract." However, that ruling also included a report of another Treasury official who claimed that while the framework contract provided document scanning, "the digitization of books was not specified."


That is, the scope of the agreement was extended although the audit found that "there is no record that has been modified to the framework contract, and digitization is not found within the contents of this agreement, moreover, it is expressly excluded thereof."
 

In Numbers


Expanding the scope of the framework contract involved more than adding work to Plumada. In the 2006 agreement digitization was understood as a "value added service" and, without specifying what kind of document had to be scanned (books, records or images), put a value of 10 cents plus VAT per digitized page. While the proposal of the company, approved by the Ministry of Education, was to make 2.122.898 million pictures, 43 cents plus VAT each (i.e. $ 0.5203), which totaled 11,045,438.29.


The Watchdog said that this increase appears in a note of November 30, 2007 addressed to the Secretary of Administrative Management and signed by the attorney for Plumada and Minister of Education. That text reads: "taking into account the agreed cost per picture is $ 0.43 plus tax" and so on. But the report notes that "it is not specified in the expression (note), nor what was observed pattern written instrument of that agreement, which increases the value of each image by 330% over what is left in the specified framework agreement."


Moreover, there was neither "conditions nor technical specifications" to justify the increase, "except for the supply of Plumada and price improvement in a footnote 30/11/2007" signed by the company.


Moreover, although it was the holder of the education portfolio who accepted the proposal by Plumada by ministerial resolution 5663/07, the audit noted that "procurement department of the Ministry of Education did not have any involvement" in a decision that, also "did not define what part of the bibliographic heritage was going to be digitized, or the amount or timing, or the price for each image."


Against this background, the controlling body of Salta abstained from giving an opinion as to the execution of scanning tasks performed in 2007. Why?, according to the report, the "lack of documentation" did not allow the fact whether by Plumada was under investigation corresponded to the audit, i.e. the Digital Library Project and, accordingly, if there was to the advance of funds of $ 3,313,631.49 held on December 6th of that year, or what to do with the framework agreement signed a year earlier.