Although by law it is mandatory to complete the paperwork to obtain a food grant, the General Auditor of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) found that in 19 of the 56 schools visited "the application and documentation was neither required nor demanded". To that we have to add the Special Education Schools "they also don’t ask for any of those things, even though, by law, they are also required to complete them”. School Number 15 is by itself a very unique case, because "they burned all their documents because they had rodents".

In the City of Buenos Aires there is a Food Grant Program intended for all schools offering cafeteria service, lunches or snacks to children who meet certain maximum income family criteria and fill out the indispensable documentation. The General Direction of School Services, that works right under the Ministry of Education of Buenos Aires, is responsible for "managing, supervising, and coordinating, or not, the acceptance to the food aid program to the pupil”. This is the area also responsible for receiving the applications."

Auditors conducting field work in the first half of 2012 observed that "there was an insufficient number of social workers", as there were only three. Importantly, they are the ones "in charge of the weekly visits to the schools to meet with parents, verify supporting documentation for grants, and assess the needs of schools in relation to food, among other issues." To understand the dimension of personal inadequacy, we must keep in mind that in 2011 "more than 156,966 grants were given in 1,200 educational institutions."

According to the Audit, the General Direction of School Services "doesn’t have an updated database, nor is it coordinated with other departments of the Ministry of Education of the City of Buenos Aires". This situation results in "low efficiency" of the body to perform its functions.

The report approved in November 2012, explains that they "could not find the total number of grants awarded in 2011 because of the differences found in the data the sources announced." Among them are "cases in which the educational institution says they did not receive grants while the Direction of School Services says they did and back and forth." For example, "in the Commercial 34 School claims they never received food packages, however, the School Services say they delivered over 380 snacks". Furthermore, other differences were found between schools from other districts.

For the Directorate los Piletones Center "is located within the 19th School District while for the Office of Investments and Statistics they are located in the 21st". Disparities were also found for the Teresa Day Care Center and for the CENP Number 19.

Commissions

The schools with cafeteria service "should form a Scholarship Committee, composed of teachers, parents, and the principal to control the documentation submitted with the application of the grant." However, of the 1,121 applications reviewed by the Audit team, "75.36% didn’t have the approval of the Committee and 40% of the schools visited had not even created one.”