They denounce irregularities in the handling of US $ 62 million in the construction of kindergartens during the Macri government

03/05/2021 2:27 PM

• Clarín.com

• Politics

Updated 03/05/2021 2:44 PM

The Ministry of Education of the Nation made this Friday a presentation before the Anticorruption Office (OA) to promote an investigation in relation to transfers of state resources for

62 million dollars

within the framework of the Program called "3,000 Gardens" promoted in 2016 by the Government of Mauricio Macri.

Of the 3,000 planned kindergartens, only 292 works were tendered and, finally, 107 were concluded, says a statement that summarizes the presentation and that was released by Educación de la Nación.

This text details: "The information collected by the Ministry of Education through the tracking and analysis of more than 480 administrative files, corresponds to irregularities in 4 tenders of a total of 17 for the realization of 93 gardens, none of which was concluded , evidencing a

lack of correspondence between the works and amounts disbursed

by the contractor compared to the millionaire sums transferred to them ".

Education points out that 34% of the total works tendered in 2016 were awarded to the Transitory Union of Companies (UTE) formed by Bahía Blanca Viviendas SRL and Escarabajal Ingeniería SRL, despite a ruling from the Evaluation Commission that indicated that that joint venture

"did not have the operational capacity to absorb the works

.

"

"Having received transfers for a total amount of US $ 61,920,462 out of a total of US $ 92,357,315 that covered the 4 contracts,

none of the 93 works was completed

and due to their low progress, after two years term, 53 of them were rescinded that were between 50% and 75% of progress, 19 registered between 20% and 49% of progress and 2 recognized only a progress of less than 20%. They rescinded 19 works by mutual agreement whose average progress was 11%, "advances the document distributed this Friday by the portfolio in charge of Nicolás Trotta.

The total amount of the contracts exceeded 90 million dollars, and 62 million dollars were disbursed over time, which is equivalent, to date, to

almost 6,000 million pesos

.

Beyond the poor performance of its work, the UTE awarded the construction of the establishments

continued to receive monetary transfers

until the end of July 2018, says Educación.

“When we took over management, we learned through SIGEN of alleged irregularities in the execution of the works.

We undertook the task of tracking and analyzing more than 480 administrative files.

Once the documentation was relieved, we verified the credits given the knowledge that both companies that were members of the UTE had submitted to

creditors

without having informed the Justice that the Ministry was their main creditor ”, explained Trotta.

Among the irregularities denounced, are included "abandonment of the works, deterioration of the construction due to weather incidents, missing products of vandalism, unfinished perimeter fences and absence of surveillance and construction managers in most cases, with the consequent

loss of patrimony for the State

".

LGP