The National Institute of Technological Education (INET, for its acronym in Spanish) transfers funds to different establishments in the country to facilitate both the incorporation of young people into the labor market and the continuous training of adults. In this context, the General Audit of the City of Buenos Aires (AGCBA, for its acronym in Spanish) wanted to find out how these financial aid was carried out in a timely manner for Buenos Aires establishments during 2014 and detected irregularities in tenders and shortcomings in the arming of files, A case for example, it was not possible to determine how many students participated in a trip from the City Capital to Mar del Plata, funded by the agency itself.

According to a report approved this year by the Watchdog, the story occurred at the Technical Training Institute 13, in the neighborhood of Caballito. The investigation indicates that, in the folder where the travel documentation was, a sender's note was about a 45-seat bus to Mar del Plata, from September 25 to 27 (from 2014), accommodation and food at destination."

The issue was that an invoice, dated October 29 of that year, said: "Transportation services from 25/09 to 27/09 in a bus for 25 passengers with destination to Mar del Plata, return and more stay and services Available on site."

In addition, a few days later - on November 5, 2014 - the supplier received the corresponding payment. And the AGCBA said that the institute itself "forwarded the list of beneficiaries at a later date" to the cancellation of the service, with a third number of passengers: 24.

Other Recruitments

The Audit of the City examined other operations carried out by INET and found, for example, the case of a "minor contracting" of 2014, for $ 53,200, in which "the execution of the line of action 'building', for $ 17,700 was not checked, nor the reason that originated such situation.

On the other hand, the report highlights a project to provide computer equipment to different Vocational Training Centers. It occurred that, through an INET opinion of February 2014, the purchase of "ICT equipment and supplies" was approved, for a total of $ 1,370,733. However, by the end of March, a resolution of the same agency authorized a transfer of funds, which was made only on June 12, and for another figure: $ 1,322,277.

Above all, says the AGCBA: "It was observed that 180 days elapsed between the transfer of funds and the revision of amounts according to the available amount", and further, that "the electronic file was not verified the purchase order issued to One of the suppliers selected, nor was it verified (the existence) of the definitive reception parts "of the inputs in question.

Finally, the Watchdog analyzed a tender process that transferred $ 8,570,418 to finance the purchase of technical backpacks for 38 schools in the City of Buenos Aires. In principle, it was remarked that "194 days elapsed" between the sending of the money and the "reformulation of the improvement plan".

In addition, the file could not find a "modified opinion" containing "new amounts and reference prices," says the report, because finally for the project were affected $ 7,706,286, which is not what appeared on a document nor does it explain why they paid 864 thousand pesos less than anticipated.

To conclude, the technicians stated that, as in the previous example - of equipment and supplies tic -, in this case "the Parties did not find in the file the Definitive Reception, which is a requirement for payment to suppliers with funds from the city of Buenos Aires."