Government salaries were in the eye of the storm in the midst of
Javier Milei
's criticism of senators for the increase in parliamentary allowances. The President ranted against the policy without taking into account
the endorsement of his senators for the vote to take place
and that on Thursday he signed a DNU to
promote three officials to the rank of ministers
and balance the frozen salary scale. There are already 3 secretaries with the rank of minister in addition to the eight that make up the Cabinet. The freeze in senior positions in the public administration generates
imbalances
and allows national directors to earn more than several of their superiors.
The President signed DNU 337/2024 and elevated
two key officials of his administration
to the rank of minister : his sister Karina, the general secretary of the Presidency, and the Secretary of Legal and Technical
Javier Herrera Bravo.
The first is in charge of the presidential agenda, the operation of Olivos and the Casa Rosada, but in practice she is the person most trusted by the president and responsible
for the political assembly of the ruling party
. The second is in charge of drafting and legal supervision of bills and resolutions, decrees and notices that are published daily in the Official Gazette. Neither of them, much less Karina, needed to be anointed with a higher rank to exercise more authority.
The promotion of Press Secretary
Eduardo Serenellini
- included in the same DNU - was more surprising, because just days ago
he had been demoted
to his original position of Secretary, in the same resolution that empowered
Manuel Adorni
, who despite the fact that the spokesperson is in the undersecretary papers. In practice, it is Adorni who is formally in charge of the Executive's communication.
The rise of Adorni - very close to the President's sister and with an underground relationship with Serenellini - exhibited the differences in criteria between the Milei brothers for political leadership, whose climax was seen with the
changes of authorities
in the blocks of deputies in the
Congress
and in the
Buenos Aires legislature
.
The head of state and Serenellini have a close, friendly relationship. “It is a decision of the Government. He does not ask questions and dedicates himself to his work as the President indicates,” they minimized the changes in the Communication Secretariat. Serenellini's subordinate, Undersecretary
Javier Lanari
, is in practice Adorni's right-hand man.
The Secretary General of the Presidency also kept
the Redistributive Units
of the Cabinet Headquarters that allowed her to increase her Budget by 40 million pesos,
as reported by Clarín
.
More and more senior government officials
are concerned about their salary arrears
. There are already national directors who earn more than secretaries and undersecretaries, who warn that if the situation is not corrected in the coming months,
the national coordinators
will also be higher on the salary scale.
This detail happens, because for the President, vice, ministers, secretaries and subs the
salaries have been frozen since December
while directors and coordinators - political staff positions - depend on the agreement of the National Public Employment System (Sinep) and
are adjusted by the joint ventures of UPCN and ATE
, which received an increase of 16% in January, 12% in February and 8% in March.
The salary receipts of the highest positions in the Government arrived in March with
heavy discounts
after they had to return the
48 percent increase
that the President had granted in article 4 of decree 206 of March 9, which ended up repealing 48 hours later. Thus, an Undersecretary of State ended up receiving
less than 797 thousand pesos
in hand in March .
The President reversed the gross salary increase that had gone from
4,068,738.23 pesos to 6,025,801,
and caused
disagreements with Cristina Kirchner
. The salary of senior officials will remain on paper the same as in December: 3,767,339.40 pesos for the vice president; 3,584,006.00, for ministers; 3,282,709.47 pesos, for the secretaries; and 2,981,513.49 pesos, for the undersecretaries.
Some officials of the Milei administration maintain that
they earn less nominally
than those of the Alberto Fernández administration, because - after the modification of Profits -
they cannot declare exemptions
and are reached by the limit prior to the change in law. The fiscal package that the Government has just sent to Congress may bring relief in that sense.
See also
See also
Javier Milei and Victoria Villarruel spoke to avoid another intern after the scandal over salaries: "Let nothing and no one unite us"
See also
See also
Carlos Zannini sought to "shield" the UBA to avoid government audits of its expenses