The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic through monitoring of the School Feeding Program (PAE) throughout the country, which is executed by the Delegate Comptroller for Citizen Participation and in coordination with the Ministry of National Education and the Food Unit for Learning ( UAPA), identified that around 530,000 children and adolescents in the country are at risk of not receiving the school feeding service during the first month of the 2023 School Calendar.
DIARIO DEL HUILA, CURRENT NEWS
By: Johan Edward Rojas Lopez
Thus, of the total of 97 Certified Territorial Entities, 9 of them present a risk of non-compliance at the opportune start. This is due to inefficient planning to carry out the contracting processes in Córdoba, Valledupar, Sucre, Yopal, Santa Marta, Quibdó, Buenaventura, Neiva and Ciénaga.
Alexandra Rodríguez Vela, Comptroller delegate for Citizen Participation, in dialogue with Diario Del Huila, explained that the above generated precisely because they plan to start providing the service 30 days later.
The Entity also identified that, as of January 23, 2023, Yopal and Neiva declared the contracting process void, Sucre plans to start on March 15, Córdoba has no extension, Santa Marta has not started the contracting process, Valledupar has just The adjudication process began, Buenaventura reported being in a stock exchange conference and Quibdó awarded that same January 23. In Ciénaga, it is especially striking due to the risk of service suspension due to lack of contractual planning.
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However, in the particular case of Neiva, it is reported that after starting the school calendar on January 16, the provision of the service has not yet begun. This is how the provision of the service for 38 thousand affected children in the municipality is at risk, in addition, that the entity is also concerned that the current contracting process is projected only for the first 75 days and the school calendar consists of 180 days.
The risk, under this logic, would only be registered in Neiva given that after two weeks of starting the school calendar, the service has not begun to be provided. On the other hand, in Pitalito and Huila, where the rest of the municipalities are included, these risks do not exist.
“This is due to the deficiencies in the planning of the resources that were granted in December. They were communicated on December 7 through a resolution regarding the resources they were going to receive and even knowing that they did not take into account the planning in the contracting and, therefore, today we present a delay. The only progress we have is that the contracting process is already projected, but for only 75 days, so we will be monitoring this progress and it causes us a little concern that there are interruptions in the provision of the service or possible further delays. forward”, argued Rodríguez Vela.
Budget
On December 7, resolution 359 communicated the allocation of resources for each of the departments and for each of the Certified Territorial Entities. The allocation of resources in the country was 1.2 trillion and particularly in these nine certified territorial entities where there is a problem regarding the beginning of the provision of the service, 124 billion pesos were assigned.
The department of Huila was assigned 51 billion pesos, while for the Certified Territorial Entity of Neiva 8,000 billion pesos and for Pitalito 3,000 billion pesos.
For now, the strategy of the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic is to continue providing permanent monitoring and working with the Ministry of Education to make recommendations regarding the problems that arise.
In addition, to continue with the monitoring of the School Meals Plan (PAE) for which they are linked to the departmental managements made up of 31 groups in each of the departments of Colombia. “We will take into account that for the follow-ups we will prioritize the timely start and the delivery modality prepared on site”, he mentioned.
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Concern in Pitalito?
He also assured that, in the follow-up they did during 2022 in Huila and Pitalito, they revealed various problems.
“We present different problems in Pitalito. This year, the contracting process in that Certified Territorial Entity only contracted 62 days for the provision of the service, so we are also concerned that there are suspensions in the provision of the service while they contract the rest of the days in the school calendar, “said the Comptroller delegate for Citizen Participation
Currently in the region there are 200,000 children beneficiaries of the School Meals Plan, therefore, compliance with this is essential since the program was designed precisely to prevent school dropout and, as he related, “for us as the Comptroller General of the Republic It is of the utmost importance that the service be provided both in a timely manner and with high quality standards and with all the criteria contemplated by the Ministry of Education so that children have adequate nutrition and, therefore, can receive a quality education and in the propitious conditions”.
Faced with all this, the Comptroller General of the Republic made a call to attention to these 9 Certified Territorial Entities, since, since December 7, more than 124 billion pesos were assigned for the execution of the PAE valid for 2023 in their territories. and have revealed worrisome flaws. It is worth clarifying that this information is cut off on January 23, which means that this information will surely change very soon because the updates will be issued by the departmental groups. This could generate some positive or negative changes.
Territorial Entities that ‘crack’ at the beginning of the PAE
In turn, as part of the preventive monitoring that the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation carries out on the School Feeding Program -PAE- for the 2023 term, the control entity indicated that of the 97 Certified Territorial Entities (ETC) responsible for providing the service , 60 have already started the academic calendar and in 15 of these, the food supplement of the beneficiaries in the official educational institutions was not guaranteed from the first day of the school calendar.
According to the report of the UAPA Special Administrative Unit for School Feeding, the Public Ministry received the report of the delays in the municipalities of La Estrella, Valledupar, Quibdó, Lorica, Facatativá, Neiva, Armenia, Santa Marta, Buenaventura, for the start of provision of the service and implementation of the school feeding program.
The control entity referred to its concern for cases such as that of Sucre, where the Government will award the contract until March 15, 2023, and situations such as that of Yopal, a territorial entity that must initiate a new process for a declaration of void that was in progress.
Thus, the Public Ministry also specified that, according to the report, in the departments of Antioquia, Cauca and Chocó, the start of the PAE was carried out partially and in the case of Caquetá, Córdoba, Guaviare, Sucre and Quindío, it was not reported the start of operation for the provision of the service, putting at risk that children and adolescents receive timely and with quality, the food rations they require to guarantee their access and permanence in the school system.
Finally, the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation, through the territorial and judicial prosecutors, will continue to monitor the provision of the school feeding program, reminding mayors and governors that they must strictly comply with the provisions of Directive 019 of 2022. issued by the control entity.