A Park Ranger in Mendoza Was Forced To Return the Collection for a Natural Reserve
<p style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">It was in Caverna de las Brujas, Malargüe. This was decided by the provincial Court of Auditors after they found that in 2007 $25,589 pesos were missing and that the deposit slips for the tickets sold had not been presented. Adding interest the penalty amounts to $ 36,183. The local representative of the Department of Natural Resources will pay $1,500.</span></p> <div> </div>
The Court of Auditors of the province of Mendoza (TCM, for its acronym in Spanish) in 2007 found that there was a shortfall in the Caverna de las Brujas natural reserve collection totaling $25,589. According to the Watchdog’s statement, although tickets were presented, the officials of the Directorate of Renewable Natural Resources (DRNR, for its acronym in Spanish) of the Malargüe delegation, the department where the reserve is located, never booked the corresponding deposits. The Court said that the missing tickets were recorded twice, one for $ 16,759 and another for $ 8,830. In addition, the court indicated the park ranger as the responsible agent.
The DPP, as prosecutor, ordered the institution of administrative proceedings against the agents of the public administration Fernando Cabello, park ranger, and Ramón Ángel Martínez, delegate DRNR in Malargüe.
Disclaimer
The park ranger says that "there is no law that rules him as responsible or able to handle funds of Natural Resources, which did not exist at that time by the responsible authority (Engineer Martinez) authorizing him to manage funds of the institution." However, the Court notes that according to the park ranger law (No. 7191), it was up to him to "prevent and report any criminal activity to the detriment of the rights protected by the Directorate of Renewable Natural Resources."
The delegate of the DRNR in Malargüe, Engineer Ramon Martinez said in his defense that "it was not his responsibility to control park rangers and these are agents that perform the collection, storage, and accountability of the Caverna de las Burjas funds in direct dependence on DRNR, without reporting relationship with him, "trying to make it clear that raising money is not in their custody.
However, the Court stated that "Martinez is also responsible, because he should control the rendering of the public money raised." However, it also highlights that, after the watchdog detected the first shortfall of funds, Martinez reported the second.
Fines
The Mendoza watchdog concluded that responsible for the missing $ 25,589 was the park ranger Fernando Cabello, having found that he had not provided sufficient elements to be separated from the responsibility of the collection irregularities. The ruling stated that the ranger created a loss for the State, so he was made responsible for the missing sum plus interest, which totaled $10,591.33, which means the total amount ascended to $36,180.33.
Moreover, the Court of Auditors of Mendoza understood that Martinez was responsible for the only failing to fulfill his administrative role, due to the lack of internal control. He was fined $1,500.