All the Answers
Well-known member
The Government denounced an embezzlement of funds of USD 341 million in the delivery of the Progresar Scholarships - Infobae
Source:
El Gobierno denunció una malversación de fondos por USD 341 millones en la entrega de las Becas Progresar
El programa se financiaba con un préstamo internacional. La SIGEN calificó el caso como de un “impacto alto” económico. No existen legajos de los supuestos estudiantes beneficiados
www.infobae.com
May 02, 2024
The program was financed with an international loan. SIGEN described the case as having a “high economic impact.” There are no files of the supposed beneficiary students
By Andres Klipphan
Sandra Pettovello and Carlos Torrendell meeting with the university rectors
The Ministry of Human Capital, headed by Sandra Pettovello, reported to the court irregularities in the “Progresar” scholarship program that the Government of Alberto Fernández granted with international financing of 341 million dollars , a “loan” that was finalized in November 2019 and on which, according to La Libertad Avanza officials and an audit by the General Audit Office of the Nation - cited in the presentation -, no type of control was carried out. For this reason, the destination of the funds is unknown, who would have benefited from these funds and whether they reached the hands of students from the most vulnerable sectors between 16 and 17 years old through the “Assistance to Young Students for the Completion of Compulsory Education”.
In the judicial presentation, those allegedly responsible for the embezzlement of money that should have been allocated to the most vulnerable are denounced for the crimes of "failure to fulfill the duties of a public official" and "fraud on the public administration."
“After arduous investigations and internal audits, the Legal Undersecretariat of the Ministry of Human Capital detected a lack of control in the granting of the aforementioned benefits by the National Directorate of Scholarships and Educational Democratization (DNByDE) during the 2022 financial year,” it reads. in the complaint from Pettovello's portfolio, which Infobae accessed .
President Alberto Fernández when he presented the expansion of the Progresar scholarships
In the letter, the current officials highlighted: “This lack of control over state money is reflected in the material impossibility of being able to properly control and/or inspect the amount of scholarships that were awarded, and/or whether the beneficiaries of the same were correctly selected for this purpose; or, if they had some type of incompatibility that would make said granting illegal.”
Among other irregularities, the investigation highlights that “no individual file was prepared for each scholarship recipient from their registration to the granting of the scholarship.” Nor "is there documentation to support each grant", in fact, " there are no applications or registration forms with school certification that demonstrates the schooling taken." In the ANSES, no documentation was found “regarding the income of the applicants and their family group.”
In this regard, the SIGEN audit classified the case as having “high impact.” For this reason, Leila Daniela Gianni , the Legal Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Capital, accuses of being “in the face of a serious case that is detrimental to the National State, but, suggestively, the previous government did not report anything about it to Justice,” despite the warning of the General Sindicature of the Nation.
In the latest audit ordered by Pettovello as of December 10, 2023, point 5 highlights: “In relation to the process of granting scholarships for young people to continue studying, weaknesses were detected due to the lack of a system that contains the traceability of the entire process, as well as a monthly certification procedure for educational institutions in order to be able to know which scholarship students actually attended them.”
President Javier Milei and the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, ordered audits in all public departments
From Capital Humano they also warn the magistrate that "in the framework of the audits that led to the present criminal complaint, on April 24 of the current year, the personal office of Mr. Nicolás Sojit, who was General Director of Programs, was found in the office and Sectorial and Special Projects of the Undersecretary of Administrative Management of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security until recently - and deposed from his position by this government -; documentary that would reveal a source of external financing in the case coming specifically from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) , for a total of 341 million dollars specifically assigned to the Progresar Scholarships in question.
To this end, the judicial document clarifies that “the documentation found in the offices that Sojit occupied in the Ministry of Labor appeared within the framework of the dismissal of 13 officials and agents of the Ministry of Labor of the Nation ordered by this National Government. for various irregularities detected and under investigation.”
The loan granted to the country - that is, with repayment - “was granted to the Argentine Republic by the 'BIRF' for a total of 341 million dollars, a loan that was completed in the month of November 2019.” The Program had, among its fundamental objectives, to finance the “Progresar Scholarships”.
From the Pettovello portfolio, they described as “gross” the irregularities detected by the General Audit Office of the Nation in the management of the “Progresar” scholarships and that “the appearance of a multimillion-dollar international loan not duly audited by any national authority is clearly “an ideal framework for the consummation of crimes to the detriment of the public treasury . ”
Justice investigates possible embezzlement of funds in the Progresar Scholarships
The “Progresar” educational scholarships have had the objective of promoting compulsory schooling and ensuring that the most disadvantaged students can finish their studies, avoiding dropping out for economic reasons .
According to the judicial presentation, " said commendable goal has not been honored by the authorities responsible for the previous government administration by having allowed/endorsed/promoted an administrative lack of control in the management of hundreds of millions of pesos and US dollars, everything that has without a doubt caused fiscal damage.”
Both SIGEN and the audit carried out by Capital Humano concluded that “it is not possible to trace where all the money from the 'Progresar Scholarships' has gone” and highlighted that: “We can only know that an enormous sum of money has been used of the National State without control and in an irregular manner.”
For Pettovello's collaborators, "if the facts reported are proven, we will be talking about unforgivable crimes : crimes that would explain part of the educational decline that our beloved country has sadly suffered for decades."
“Diverting money from students or misusing it for one's own benefit or that of third parties is a very serious crime because it not only harms the public treasury but, what is worse, directly attacks the future of our nation ,” they added.
