Some school subsidies were paid twice to the same pupil while others went to pupils who had died, the report said
BOGOTA (TrustLaw) – The Colombian government has spent tens of millions of dollars in education subsidies for some 145,000 students who were falsely enrolled in state schools across the country, Colombia’s Comptroller General has found.
In some cases, fraudulent subsidies were paid twice for the same pupil - nearly 46,750 students in total – and pupils who had never set foot in school. In other cases, they were paid for nearly 19,000 students who had dropped out of school and for 262 pupils who had died, according to a report by the Comptroller General.
The scam was uncovered following an audit of school enrollment lists during the first three months of this year by Colombia’s Comptroller General, an autonomous state entity that examines how government funds and resources are being spent.
“It’s very important that these resources aren’t being lost because it means children who deserve to access public education are not getting the opportunity to do so,” Mario Solano, an official working for the Comptroller General told a local television news channel.
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, Solano said.
The audit findings have been passed to the attorney general's office for further investigation to check that registered pupils exist and are not phantom children, he added.
The problem of falsifying enrollment lists was particularly prevalent in schools in Colombia’s northern provinces along the Caribbean coast, the audit found.
This is not the first time widespread corruption in school subsidies has been raised.
In December 2011, Colombia’s education ministry uncovered a scam involving some 180,000 students who were falsely enrolled following a nationwide audit of school enrollment lists.
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