San José Airport Managed
Without Financial
Controls
Some us$78 million
dollars of the Juan
Santamaría (San José)
airport were not audited
by the Ministerio de
Transportes de Obras
Públicas y Transportes
(MOPT), according to the
a report by the
Contraloría General de
la República, the
comptroller's office.
The control of income
generated by the airport
manager, Alterra
Partners, goes without
any financial controls
by the MOPT or any other
government agency.
The Contraloría report
says that there has not
been a clear audit of
the money since January
2007, of the monies
generated by Alterra and
deposited in a trust for
the project.
What this means is that
approximately us$78
million would have been
deposited without a
thorough review and were
accepted by the
government without any
verification of its
correctness.
The Contraloría report
clearly points out the
risk that public funds
are exposed to and the
lack of controls by the
Consejo Técnico de
Aviación Civil, the
government agency
responsible for the
airport operations,
which excuses itself by
blaming the lack of
controls by due to a
lack of equipment,
technology and personnel
to correctly audit the
finances reported by
Alterra.
What worries the
Contraloría most,
according to the report,
is the lack of a
parallel system of
control to corroborate
the income Alterra
reports.
The trust is used to
deposit all income, from
which the money is then
split 65% to the
operators (Alterra) and
5% to the government.
|
