The Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) detected a series of discrepancies in the balances to be deposited. Municipal Corporation for Education, Health, Culture and Recreation of Florida (Comudef). This after submitting an audit for the movement of funds for the period January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2020.
These are financial funds administered by the above municipal department to cover education expenses in line with the Preferential School Subsidy (SEP), the Public Education Support Fund (FAEP) and the School Integration Program (PIE).
As indicated by the supervisory body itself, the purpose of the review was to determine whether the bank checking accounts – created to manage these resources – presented available balances in accordance with the income and expenses reflected in the relevant accountability process. We do.
In addition, it sought to verify whether Comudef maintained control procedures to comply with the proper safeguarding of state resources.
million differences
As can be seen from the final report of the Comptroller’s Office, reviewed by the BioBioChile Investigation Unit, it was concluded that there is a gap of more than $4,600 million between the balance to be deposited in the Comudef Preferential School Grant (SEP), Public Education Presents. Aid Fund (FAEP) and the School Integration Program (PIE).
This was verified by reviewing the balances of the checking accounts that – in theory – were used exclusively to manage funds for education programs.
Along the same lines, a specific purpose of transferring large sums of money into these checking accounts was verified: Over $1,636 million went into SEP and another $2,382 million ended up in the current account of FAEP resources,
Therefore, the municipal corporation CGR, led by mayor Rodolfo Carter, “must send documents that clarify the amounts of transfers recorded in the FAEP and SEP, for $2.382.522.061, $1.636.406.663respectively, coming from other checking accounts, which have to be reported and documented”.
Other movements that the supervisory body has questioned are transfers for more $4,427 million from the current account of SEP funds to other accounts of the Corporation for “Administration,” “Health” and “Education.” Transfers were also made for more than $5,254 million from the FAEP Fund account to the same destination and account designated as “remuneration”.
CGR commented, “This private entity must provide documentation proving the reason it transferred $5,254,771,399 of funds from the exclusive FAEP account, and $4,427,081,456, from the SEP checking account, to other checking accounts.”
finally found it $526 million related to the expenditure of the SEP fund was not paid. Another $857 million from FAEP is also not fairTherefore, the municipal department was given a period of 60 business days to explain or respond to the funds in question.
In the same words the building unit has to provide a justification to the controller for each condition detected. If they do not do so, the records will be forwarded to the Ministry of Public Affairs and the Council of State Defense (CDE) to initiate relevant criminal proceedings.
The one who raised his voice from the city council is Jose Saves Rojas. Communist Party (PC) mayors were critical of the Carter administration, calling the comptroller’s report’s findings alarming.
“Clearly, the Comptroller’s Office suggests that we may be in the presence of a lack of protocol and control over resources, something that is even more worrying since the Comptroller’s Report No. 834 in 2017, all safeguards had to be taken to ensure good use of these”, he indicated.
Florida sociologists and councilors point to the occasion in which, even through a report, the supervisory body revealed a multimillion-dollar shortfall in the commune, which was still under Carter’s leadership at the time.
In this context, Saves took advantage of reviewing the intentions of the President of the Communal Head, assuring that it is “worrying that this administration, which has not been able to command the finances of this corporation, even itself One can also think of it as capable of managing the nation’s funds from La Currency”.
Read the report:
Comudef replied
This medium recently sent some questions to the Municipality of La Florida based on the background known. Finally, questions were answered by Comudef, a division that directly depends on the municipality, but has a separate legal personality.
-How do Florida municipalities respond to the comptroller’s report that concluded that COMUDEF presented a million-dollar gap between the balances being credited for educational subsidies? How are these differences explained?
There is no such difference. What are partially overdue surrenders from previous periods?
For this reason, the CGR in its report has provided that COMUDF clarifies that within a period of 60 working days, without sending an intimation to the MP, as is the case in cases where there is a well-established pattern of last occurrence. There is an assumption. of a crime.
Precisely because this is an administrative explanation, of a minor fraction of the total subsidy given by the State through SEP and FAEP, and not a criminal statistic, the CGR opened up this period for COMUDEF to clarify these observations. Is.
The current administration of Comudef, thanks to recently implemented protocols, has been able to establish the existence of documents that justify the late surrender and that would allow the control unit’s comments to be removed.
So much so that this same corporation requested the Superintendent of Education in October 2022 to distribute all the information and initiate an extraordinary process of rendering to comply with the requirements required by the CRG, as linked to in this statement.
– Does the municipality consider as an alternative that it is faced with acts of corruption by officials?
No way. First, we are talking about the Florida Health and Education Corporation and not the cities of Florida, which are separate legal entities.
Second, the CGR has neither established loss of money, nor commission of illegal acts. Unlike other municipalities where this has happened, and the CGR has promptly forwarded the information to the Ministry of Public Works and the State Defense Council, this has not happened in Florida.
In this case, it concerns only an administrative correction that must be notified by Comudef within a period of 60 days.
-Was there diversion of resources meant for educational subsidy to other sectors for which COMUDEF is in charge?
No, there is no proof of this in the CGR report. If there was any irregular situation, the same CGR would send the information to the Ministry of Public, Nothing of the sort has happened in this case.
In addition, from the corporation they sent BBCL Investiga Documents prove that in October last year he requested authorization from the Superintendent of Education To carry out the process of rectification of income and expenditure.
Indeed, the state body was asked to open up the rendering platform, arguing that the objective was to “add to rendering the pending expenses which were not covered in the previous reform processes.”
The latter explains the official letter, signed by the Secretary General of COMUDEF, as the fact that thanks to some changes made to internal units, it was possible to collect information and management of accountability of previous years.
read document
Finally, from inside the municipality they assure the medium that the mayor, Rodolfo Carter, has been emphatic and repeated in being strict with the money from the subsidy.
Through various offices, the Community Head has instructed several times that “the application of Law 20,248 shall refrain from using public resources for a purpose other than that expressly established in the above legal text.”
