Milei government admits its audit of soup kitchens never existed

Argentina’s Human Capital Ministry has admitted in an official filing that a sweeping audit of community soup kitchens receiving state funds that was used by President Javier Milei’s government to justify cutting off food supplies is “non-existent.” 

The revelation confirms opposition claims the administration lied when a top official claimed publicly that half of soup kitchens receiving funds did not exist.

The so-called “phantom audit” was used as justification by President Javier Milei, Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello and then-Cabinet chief Nicolás Posse in public appearances and interviews to justify a state decision to suspend food deliveries to community soup kitchens that feed the impoverished. 

That claim, according to the Human Capital Ministry, “turns out to be non-existent.”

The admission came in response to a freedom of information request filed by Patria Grande deputy Natalia Zaracho 15 months ago, on May 16, 2024 – just a day after Posse had cited the alleged audit during an appearance before Congress.

"The generic reference to 'audit' involves a grammatical interpretation made by the then-Cabinet chief [Poss]f, which refers to the control actions of the bodies in charge of implementing public policies and not to an audit report with the scope provided for in Law No. 24,156." 

The reference is to the Financial Administration Law that regulates the functioning of public bodies.

The Ministry of Human Capital confirmed, in its response to Zaracho, that they carried out "supervisions and/or territorial verifications." It admitted that these "do not correspond methodologically or teleologically with the audit reports."

In a May 2024 Congress session, Posse told the Legislative Assembly: “An audit was carried out … almost 50 percent of the kitchens did not exist.”

The official claimed state investigators had found “addresses where no kitchen had ever operated and, in other cases, where kitchens had functioned many years ago.”

After Pettovello initially refused to provide the documentation to verify those claims, Zaracho took the matter to court and won a court ruling forcing the Human Capital Ministry to respond. 

Now, more than a year on, government officials have admitted in writing that no such audit existed.

– TIMES/NA