The Participación Ciudadana (Citizen Participation) civic movement has raised red flags regarding the poor track record of the present Chamber of Accounts. Participación Ciudadana says that the auditing of government accounts carried out by the entity has little to show in quantity, importance and quality of the audits. The poor showing is a threat to the conservation and correct use of taxpayer contributions, claims the entity.
Participación Ciudadana reported that from 2012 to present, 356 audits have been carried out, an average of 51 per year. This when 1,470 government institutions should be audited. In addition, 32 political parties and 1,196 non-profit organizations should have been audited, too.
According to Participación Ciudadana, the work of the Chamber of Accounts is also ineffective in assessing the priorities it has set itself in its annual audit plans. As is known, the weight of public expenditure rests with the central government and its ministries. However, there are no known audits of the Ministries of the Presidency, Foreign Relations and Public Administration. Nor has it been persistent with the ministries with the largest budgets, such as Public Works, Health and Education.
For Participación Ciudadana, the case of the Ministry of Education is unusual. Over twelve years it has only been audited in 2009 and 2010. Audits have not been carried out after the ministry was allotted 4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since 2013.
The Ministry of Public Health has only been audited in the years 2010 and 2011, and Public Works audits only cover 2014.
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Participación Ciudadana
Hoy
10 September 2019