Tierra del Fuego: Detected Irregularities in School Restoration Works for $454 Thousand
The Court of Accounts of that province discovered failures in eight contractions made by the State under the protection of the "educational emergency education" that the Executive issued by decree in 2006. From the report an investigation was initiated against officials of the Ministry of Works and Public Services for a "possible commission of crimes."
The Court of Audit of Tierra del Fuego detected irregularities in eight renovation works that were carried out in schools of that province during the validity of the "educational, public and public emergency," which was issued by the Executive Branch through decree 4,720 of 2006. From the finding, officials of the Ministry of Public Works and Services began to be investigated for a "possible commission of crimes." The contracts in question amount to a total of $ 1,030,490.83, with a "presumed tax loss" for the treasury of Tierra del Fuego for $454,550.32.
The Legal Secretariat of the inspection agency pointed out that work in educational establishments could not be understood within the "exceptional concept of emergency declaration" of decree 4.720 / 06, because they did not refer to specific needs, nor were they bounded in time. It is that the validity of the Executive's measure was thought "until the situation is reversed" and, in addition, for such decisions "the intervention of the Legislature would have corresponded," said the Legal Secretary, because "the mechanism implemented Decree) proved to be the excuse to enable the dictating of rules that modify the system of contracting of the State and, under that, public funds are available irregularly. Therefore, according to the Court of Auditors, these acts "have no legal basis", and are "vitiated by nullity due to violation of the legal system".
For its part, the State Attorney's Office was issued on the legality of Decree 4,720 / 06 and, although it acknowledged that in the face of a possible building crisis of schools, the state of emergency can be declared, agreed with the Court of Auditors that Decision must not "in any way" enable the Executive "to deviate from the laws governing state contracting, which can only be modified by law."
From the Accounting Department of the control body, in addition, they added that "there are irregularities in the vast majority of the files related to emergency legislation", and that the quantitative and qualitative differences detected in the results of the works that are arranged under their protection, open the possibility of a tax loss that, in case of occurrence, "is not a circumstantial fact, but the logical consequence of the norms dictated at the time."