The Ministry of Human Capital, in charge of Sandra Pettovello, reported to the court irregularities in the “Progresar” scholarship program”that the Government of Alberto Fernandez granted with international financing of 341 million dollarsa “loan” which 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”.
The judicial presentation denounces those allegedly responsible for the embezzlement of money that should have been allocated to the most vulnerable of crimes of “failure to fulfill the duties of a public official” and “fraud against the public administration.”
“After arduous investigations and internal audits, the Legal Undersecretariat of the Ministry of Human Capital detected 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,” reads the complaint from the Pettovello portfolio, which was accessed Infobae.
In the letter, the current officials highlighted: “This absence of control in state money is reflected in the material impossibility of being able to properly control and/or inspect the number of scholarships that were awarded, and/or if the beneficiaries 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 in the course.” Nor was any documentation found in the ANSES “regarding the income of the applicants and their family group.”
In this regard, the SIGEN audit classified the case as “high impact”. For that reason, Leila Daniela Gianni, the Legal Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Capital, accuses of being “in the face of a serious case that harms the National State, but, suggestively, the previous government did not report anything about it to Justice,” despite the warning of the General Audit Office. of the Nation.
In the last 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, there were detected weaknesses 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 learn that scholarship students actually attended them.
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, it was found in the personal office of the Attorney Nicolas Sojit, who was General Director of Sectoral and Special Programs and 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 Disassociation of 13 officials and agents from 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 Pettovello’s portfolio they classified 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 “It is clearly an ideal framework for the consummation of crimes to the detriment of the public treasury.”.
The “Progresar” educational scholarships have had as their objective promote compulsory schooling and ensure that the most disadvantaged students can complete their studies, avoiding dropping out for economic reasons.
According to the court filing, “said commendable goal, has not been honored by the responsible authorities of the previous government administration having permitted/endorsed/enabled an administrative lack of control in the management of hundreds of millions of pesos and dollars Americans, everything that has undoubtedly led to 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 verified, 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, and what is worse, directly attacks the future of our nation“, they completed.
