The City of Buenos Aires Directorate of Violations Cannot Determine How Many Fines It Wrote in 2007
<p style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">A report of the Audit of the City shows that there are three different numbers for the number of infringements made, and the mismatch also appears in the collection agencies, showing a difference of nearly $ 390,000. Furthermore, previous failures are repeated, for example, drivers who violate traffic rules are not cited.</span></p> <div> </div>
The Directorate General of Administrative Offences of the City (DGAI) has no system to check the amount of manual or photographic fines generated. As is stated in the report by the Audit of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish), who also adds that the area under the Ministry of Justice and Security, "doesn’t reliably write up offenders" with the voluntary payment system.
According to information gathered by the city watchdog "the total number of fines is 5,126,498" while "quarterly performance reports show 5,084,114 records," and the investment account gives a third number 3,444. 686. Thus, the audit determined that "there is no system to check how many minutes are reliably generated each year."
The AGCBA’s report elaborated on 2007 data and approved this year, remains similar to the last audit conducted in DGAI in 2006, which revealed that "citations are not elaborated in every case" where transit violations are detected, and had "mismatch in the amounts of revenue from fines from the General Accounting Office and the DGAI".
Within the management process violations "dispersed computing services" that result in "differences between records" prepared by the servicers were observed. The watchdog believes this is "due to the number of areas involved in the process," referring to the DGAI, the Bank of the City of Buenos Aires, the Treasury, the General Accounting Office, and all entities authorized for the collection of fines.
Once the records of the agencies involved in the securing of fines are collected, the AGCBA warned there was a "mismatch of the revenue.” Here, it discovered that the General Treasury of the City, collector of money from fines, received $ 28,647,789 for transit fines paid by the voluntary payment system, meanwhile the DGAI received $29,037,080.
In this regard, the watchdog determined that "there is no single, detailed record in the area of government of the City of Buenos Aires to assess the policy implemented" by the area dependent on the Ministry of Justice and Security.
Once again the Audit detected that the Directorate does not report the fines written to offenders who can afford them. The report says that "the DGAI did not reliably" and that "of the 1,097,832 records paid by voluntary payment, only 764,877" were called to pay. The work, in turn, indicates that as it is contained in an existing contract in the services provided by the National Technological University (UTN) it is “mandatory.”
As for the public service, delays generated by "permanent failure" in computer systems and the lack of "updating standards" containing information on the ownership of the vehicles were registered.
However, faced with this situation, a satisfaction survey conducted by the Audit among those who went to pay the fines, revealed that "60% of respondents" timeout seemed "short or brief" them, while "21% perceived it as an adequate duration."
However, for AGCBA the building where the Directorate is located, which serves 1,300 people daily, "does not have space or sufficient restrooms" and of the four elevators, "usually two are out of order."