Government spends tens of millions of dollars in subsidies for phantom students registered in state schools
BOGOTA (TrustLaw) - Colombia’s government has spent tens of millions of dollars in education subsidies for some 180,000 students who were falsely enrolled in state schools across the country, the education minister has said.
Fraudulent registers included multiple entries for the same pupil, students who had never set foot in class and others who did not even exist, minister Maria Fernando Campo added.
The scam was uncovered following an audit of school enrollment lists by Colombia’s education ministry.
The government pays local education authorities up to $720 a year for each pupil to attend school. The loss in state funds could total more than $100 million, Campo said.
She said the audit findings have been passed to the attorney general's office for further investigation to check that registered pupils "actually exist and are flesh and blood children, not phantom children".
The problem of falsifying enrollment lists was particularly prevalent in the capital Bogota, where initial investigations show more than 20,000 phantom pupils appear on last year’s school registers, Campo said.
Local authorities found to have received government funds based on fraudulent lists will have their budgets reduced next year and could face prosecution, the minister said.
This is not the first time corruption in school subsidies has been raised.
Last June, Colombia’s leading daily, El Tiempo, reported that an independent audit of school registers showed that the government paid education subsidies for 34,000 students who allegedly did not exist.
According to Transparency International’s 2011 report on the perception of public sector corruption, Colombia ranks 80 out of 183 countries, with one being the least corrupt.
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