“The UBA is audited and wants to continue being so, which is why it formally requested the General Audit of the Nation (AGN) to include it again in the 2025 Audit Plan,” begins the institution’s document. The AGN has not yet been formed due to lack of agreement between allied blocs of the ruling party in the Chamber of Deputiesbut even so the text indicates that there are controls from the Legislative and Executive Branch, in addition to a General Audit of the University and transparency reports on its official website.
In this framework, the university stated that they advanced in “a national and international call for independent professionals to carry out a special audit on the university’s internal control system, in order to continue providing unquestionable information to citizens.”The UBA is accountable for all its funds and is one of the most controlled and audited entities in the public sector.“they added.
SIGEN audits of universities
Subsequently, the statement states that “SIGEN does not have powers to audit national universities“and that the Constitution “only grants it internal control functions of the Executive Branch.” “The Universities are autonomous and do not depend on the National Executive Branch. Therefore, SIGEN has no powers to control them, nor does it have powers to control the Legislative Branch or the Public Ministry. This is not an opinion of the University: it is the letter of the law“, they expressed.
They also list that “SIGEN does not provide transparency to Universities. SIGEN does not publish any of its reports or provide any information to the public. The SIGEN does not publish any type of information about the control activities it has to carry out on the Executive Branch, the Ministries and the Secretariats of the Presidency. In short, its activity adds nothing to the public transparency of the State or to the information available to citizens.”
Finally, the institution addresses accusations of lack of transparency: “Behind the false discussion about accountability there is a real ideological attack to the very idea of the free, free, and massive public university.” “The Executive Branch does not lack information about the use that the University makes of its budget. The UBA sends you, every month, all the information available. What the Executive wants to control is what is taught at the university, how it is taught and to whom it is taught.“they suspect.
“He wants to turn SIGEN into his Trojan horse to attack the heart of the university system: academic freedom. You want to be able to decide which knowledge or disciplines are valuable and which are not.which teachers can teach and which cannot, which students have the right to attend university and which do not,” the message continues.
Finally, they maintain that “Without autonomy there is no free education, and only what the government in power wants is taught.when the government wants, where the government wants, and who the government wants.” “To finish clearing any type of suspicion regarding the UBA’s willingness to submit to all existing legal controls, in addition to requesting an independent external audit , “The University has decided to take the controversy regarding who should exercise internal control over the houses of higher education to the Judiciary.”they promised.
For Pettovello there is no “collision” between university autonomy and autarchy and SIGEN audits
Through a statement titled “Auditing universities is guaranteeing autarky,” the Ministry of Human Capital ratified its position regarding the account reviews carried out on the public national universities through the General Sindicature of the Nation (SIGEN).
The agency is expected to move forward with the review of the accounts of 61 public national universitiesfor which they will review 2,200 agreements with other State agencies or public companies. This was confirmed by the portfolio under the leadership of Sandra Pettovellowhich in its document maintains that with this process it seeks “ensure financial regularity and the legality of the procedures for the use of public resources and the liability regime of officials, imposing on them the obligation to account for their management; in addition to implement an internal control system“.
It is in this framework that the ministry confirms that “There is no collision between university autonomy and autarky and the control competence of SIGEN in the field of national universities.“. Citing the Law No. 24,156emphasize that SIGEN is empowered to “systematically and comprehensively examine the internal control prevailing in public sector organizations and entities, their operations and compliance with financial, legal and management responsibilities.”
“The control carried out by SIGEN is fundamental for adequate public management, since it implements and supervises the operation of tools that allow warn the responsible authority of the supervised body or entity about the risks that exist in the organization under their charge“, continues the document.
Finally, the ministry defines that ““When there is no control, the existence of an environment conducive to the occurrence of maneuvers that allow public money to be diverted to unwanted purposes is facilitated.”. “The lack of control over the application of the significant public funds that the National State allocates to the National Universities makes it possible for these resources to be used for purposes other than those for which they were assigned,” the statement concludes.
Source: Ambito
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