Since Buenos Aires is an Autonomous City, the Buenos Aires Audit Office (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) has conducted 364 reports with more than 500 observations on how the dependencies of the local Executive are conjured. In its latest work, approved in December of last year, on 2008 data, the reiteration of the results led the control body to conclude that "the complete development of the organizational structure of the Government is undoubtedly a complex task that does not Has been addressed in depth by any management.”

According to the technicians, in the layout of the areas, "each Ministry acts according to its own criteria or needs, leading to dissimilar development both in terms of the size of the structure and the denominations used to define the lower units." And, beyond the names with which they are designated, the report adds that "the lack of formal development of the levels inferior to the level of General Direction has been a constant characteristic throughout the years".

"The development of the organic structure at its lower levels has had minimal progress," says the AGCBA, which during its work analyzed 115 Directorates General. In these observations "it was possible to quantify the existence of an informal structure comprising more than 1600 organizational units". Of this total, 85.7% are "established in fact", and 14.3%, through "insufficient internal rules", because officials who may issue resolutions, under-secretaries or general managers, do not have the Powers to make those decisions.

For example, in the same Government Headquarters there are eight general directorates, no formal unit and 47 informal units, none of which are approved by law. Something similar occurs in the Ministry of Economic Development, which has 13 directorates general, two formal units and 199 informal units, of which only 49 have a rule that legitimizes them (see chart).

What damages does this situation bring to the functioning of the Buenos Aires Government? The AGCBA highlights an "important weakness of internal control," and also mentions "the existence of various problems that are repeated in different areas, which have been repeatedly observed over the years and the efforts that have been in charge of the Power Executive", from the autonomy of Buenos Aires, in 1996.

Among these problems, the report specifies that the absence of formal structures generates "confusing situations such as the competencies, functions and responsibilities of each area". In regard to public employees, the Audit noted "the informal allocation of responsibilities to different agents that, in short, do not effectively hold the position they exercise and are not remunerated according to it." With this scenario, the Watchdog indicates that "administrative and judicial claims are generated that, in the generality of the cases, are adverse to the Government of the City."

In 2007, a decree was issued, number 2075, which approved the functional organic structure of the Buenos Aires Executive. In the rule, the AGCBA detected "cases of overlapping and dispersion of responsibilities between different organisms". Some of the thematic areas in which this could be verified were, for example, the relationship with the control entities, because both the Vice-Ministry of Government and the Office of the Chief of Staff have offices responsible for the task, in the first case it is the General Directorate of Legislative Affairs and Control Agencies and, in the second, the General Directorate of Relations with the Control, Transparency and Access to Information Organizations. And in terms of traffic and road safety, the Ministry of Justice has seven areas and Urban Development, two, as well as the Environment and Public Space. The same is true of what has to do with strategic planning and emergency action (see chart).
The Audit recommended that "development (of the functional areas) should be addressed as quickly as possible and with a precise definition of the guiding criteria that will govern it and the objectives to be achieved."