Due to irregularities in the PAE, Comptroller's Office has 144 fiscal responsibility processes for $42 billion

Complaints against the implementation of the School Feeding Program (PAE) have increased this 2022, with the return to face-to-face. The complaints that have been made vary, but they all have to do with the quality of the food that is being given to minors from the state program and the amounts that are being served to them. One of the latest complaints was made public by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic together with the Ministry of National Education: in March, the supervisory authorities indicated that 11 Certified Territorial Entities (ETC), from nine departments of the country, had not yet begun to implement the School Feeding Program.

The newspaper El Tiempo reported that the Comptroller's Office has 144 fiscal responsibility proceedings open for 42,046 million pesos, related to all the complaints and irregularities that have been evidenced in the execution of the PAE throughout the national territory, especially in the following territories: Buenaventura, Caquetá, Cesar, Cordoba, Cucuta, Magdalena, Neiva, Pitalito, Santa Marta, Sincelejo and Sucre.

Of the 144 open processes, 123 are currently in the formal investigation stage, related to national resources allocated to the program in 26 departments; the remaining ones are in the preliminary investigation stage in 11 departments.

The state watchdog managed to confirm everything that was being rumored on social networks during the months of January and February, when a team from the entity visited 150 public schools where the PAE is being run: during the exercise it was confirmed that 34% of the sample were not delivering the PAE on the day of the visit.

He added: “Public resources, and in this case school feeding, must be implemented properly. That is why as a control body we call on those CTEs that have not started, to do so and not leave their students without food.”

Likewise, it was evidenced that there are significant deteriorating conditions of the infrastructures required for the implementation of the PAE, as well as the lack of kitchenware in most educational venues. 16% of schools do not have a kitchen, 26% do not have a storage space, 15% do not have a dining room and 22% do not have a place for food refrigeration.

To aggravate the case, in some institutions the hygiene situation is not the best. This has led to the fact that, to date, in 10 schools, located in Boyacá, Meta, Antioquia and Cundinamarca, health quality and safety warnings have been presented due to outbreaks of STD (foodborne diseases) in the PAE rations that caused more than 300 children to have abdominal pain, headache, nausea and vomiting.

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