Before leaving power, Kirchnerism
sought to shield
the National University of Buenos Aires (UBA)
to prevent audits of its accounts by the Government.
It was through an extensive opinion dated November 28, 2022 by the then
Treasury Attorney and Cristina Kirchner's side, Carlos Zannini.
In its resolution, citing various laws,
it ratified that the external monitoring of the expenses of the UBA and other national universities should continue to be the responsibility of the General Audit Office of the Nation (AGN),
which depends on the Legislative Branch, and
not of the General Audit Office. the Nation (SIGEN),
the control body of the Executive.
The former official considered that in this way "the autonomous status
achieved at the constitutional level" by these study houses
is protected .
In the midst of the conflict generated by the cut in funds,
the government of Javier Milei intends to audit the expenses of the universities, something that rectors
and other authorities reject under the argument precisely that the autonomy of their institutions would be violated.
The current Executive accuses Alberto Fernández's management of having
promoted self-audits
in this area and "denigrate" the oversight task.
From the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) they affirm that
"it is not possible" for the Government to carry out the audits
on which it wants to advance, because these controls are the jurisdiction of the AGN, which reports to Congress.
They also explained that the university accounts are
controlled internally and then approved by each Superior Council,
and that the information
is also held by the AGN.
In his 2022 opinion, Zannini concluded that "
the provisions contained in articles 100 and related articles regarding internal control" of law 24,156, which
regulates the financial administration and control systems of the university,
are not applicable to national universities.
national public sector,
and establishes SIGEN as controller.
However, in fact some universities reported their expenses to SIGEN during the Mauricio Macri government.
The same Zannini document indicates that the UBA, which this year has a
budget of $121,000 million
(identical to that of 2023), is among the institutions that
"have formally excluded themselves from the aforementioned
verification system. "
Another chapter of this controversy occurred in November 2023, when the then Minister of Education, Jaime Perckzyk,
signed an agreement with SIGEN to "improve internal audits"
in universities, according to the official statement. The agreement was also signed by the Interuniversity Council. It happened days before the presidential runoff that Sergio Massa lost to Milei.
“We know that we are public officials who manage public funds and we have a responsibility that, for us,
requires transparency
and control,” Perckzyk stressed at that event.
Universities that wanted to add SIGEN to their internal controls had to adhere to the agreement. Finally, more than 20 did,
but not the UBA.
After the change of political sign in the Government that occurred in December, in practice this agreement has not yet been activated.