The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, issued a Resolution certifying that the company that manages Public TV and Radio Nacional, in charge of Rosario Lufrano, will have
an operating deficit of 22,949 million pesos this year.
Radio y Televisión Argentina (RTA) will have
advertising revenue of 930 million pesos and operating expenses of 23,879 million
, according to Resolution 131 published last Friday in the Official Gazette, which approves the "Action Plan and Budget for the year 2023". set by the National Congress.
A part of these operating losses will be covered with funds from the National Communications Entity (ENaCom), which this year will send 4,843 million pesos, for the distribution that corresponds to RTA by the Audiovisual Media Law.
While
another 20,000 million will be covered with funds that the Government will rotate
, through the National Treasury.
Transfers from the Government to RTA
will have accumulated an increase of 699% during the entire administration of Lufrano,
in the presidency of Alberto Fernández, according to the calculations of the Bloomberg agency.
They will increase from the
2,502 million that the National Treasury sent to RTA in the last year of Mauricio Macri's administration,
to the 20,000 million that the Government plans to transfer this year.
Massa's Resolution
came out without a sentence that last year had generated strong controversy,
since it stated that the company RTA "does not have the objective of achieving profitability from the economic point of view, but of
advancing in obtaining social benefits
" .
However, in the official Resolution the same spirit remained as throughout Lufrano's entire management, where
the focus is not on containing the growing operating losses.
Close to Macri they propose
a drastic restructuring of the public media
, which will remove them from the million-dollar losses of recent years, while they analyze the possibility of
reducing, dissolving or privatizing Télam, Radio Nacional and TV Pública
, an issue that was raised by the leaders libertarians
José Luis Espert and Javier Milei
.
A specialist consulted by
Clarín
, who asked to remain anonymous, highlighted the need to reduce expenses, but said that "if the national government, state companies and decentralized organizations
allocate 10% of their official advertising to national public media,
It could be an alternative source of financing, as was achieved with ENaCom, where the funds come from the private sector."
In any case, the audiovisual industry specialist acknowledged that these funds are scarce given the
growing level of operating deficit
that public media have.
The
salaries of the employees
are one of the main items where the opposition focuses, since its leaders assure that
a large part of the deficit is due to expenses in employees and managers
, since their salaries are usually above the average that is paid in the audiovisual industry.
The then Chief of Staff,
Juan Manzur
, informed the Senate at the end of last year that
Public Television went from 927 employees, in December 2018, to "1,071 agents"
in October 2022,
of which the average gross salary exceeded 300,000 pesos (Bloomberg placed it at 421,000 pesos for each RTA employee) and fourteen managers earned more than President Fernández, like Lufrano, with
1,267,155 pesos per month.
74% of RTA's operating expenses correspond to salaries,
to pay employees
employees of Public TV and National Radio.
In any case, there are differences between the Resolution approved last Friday by Massa, which lists a staff of 2,296 employees in RTA, and the data published by the Unit for Integration and Transparency of the state company, which lists 2,409 employees
, that is, 113 more than those reported
in the National Government Resolution.
The "ghost" manager of Public TV
One of the officials who earns the most in Public TV is Roberto Gambuzza,
the manager of Press and Institutional Relations of Public TV, who has a salary of 826,500 pesos a month, took office three years ago, but is not going to work for the state channel.
Gambuzza is
a "phantom manager"
because he was designated as
the historical spokesman for Enrique "Pepe" Albistur
, but most of the employees never saw him.
Gambuzza is the spokesman for Albistur, former media secretary of Néstor Kirchner, who does not get paid for his work together with a close friend of President Fernández (who lived on loan in his Puerto Madero apartment) nor for his militancy together with his wife, the minister Victoria Tolosa Paz, but
she receives a juicy salary from Public TV, which exceeds that received by deputies and senators.
The RTA board of directors will meet next Tuesday the 28th to analyze the strange situation of Gambuzza, revealed by Clarín.
The opposition demands that its president, Lufrano, and the executive director of Public TV, Claudio Martínez, give explanations about the manager who earns 826,500 pesos per month, but has no office, staff in charge, or work hours at the state channel ..
Lufrano asked Martínez for a report on Gambuzza's situation, which he will present at the
next RTA Board meeting
, where the seven directors will debate his case.
"If from the information that they pass on and the questions that we ask, it turns out that it is true that he is not going to work and is paid for a function that he does not perform, I am going to move to have
him fired for cause
," said Cristian Larsen, director for the parliamentary opposition on the RTA board.
"This shows that they are impudent in the management of public money. They have lost all modesty.
They defend privileges, while Argentina is sinking,"
added Deputy Hernán Lombardi (PRO), former head of the Federal System of Public Media and Content.
Gambuzza took over as manager on March 1, 2020, according to what Radio y Televisión Argentina reported in response to a request for access to public information filed by
Clarín
.
And since April 2021, he reports to the channel's executive director, Claudio Martínez.
But no employee of Public TV remembers having seen Gambuzza at the offices of the Press and Institutional Relations area, he has
never been seen in official acts of the channel
, nor do the employees remember having received any instructions from him in these three years of management.
"Gambuzza was appointed through the Act of the RTA Board of Directors in the position of Manager of International Relations and Press of Channel 7. The agent provides services in the aforementioned Managerial position and whoever signs this report certifies the services of all Managers of the Unit of Business Channel 7.
The Press and Communication Area has workspaces for sector agents.
In the same dependencies are the necessary spaces to fulfill the roles and functions that the task implies,"
the Executive Director of the Channel informed
Clarín
. TV Pública, directed by Claudio Martínez, in response to a request for access to public information.
However, in dialogue with Clarín, Gambuzza maintained the opposite.
"I don't use any particular office, because the tasks I carry out involve meetings and different dynamics in other offices and work spaces.
Managers have certain prerogatives
due to our function. And based on the management plan, we determine how, when and where it is convenient do our homework," Gambuzza said.
"In my case, management determined that
my role be direct advice to the executive directors of the channel,
either in Alvarez's management as now in the current one," concluded the manager of Press and Institutional Relations of TV Pública, before the
Clarín
query
.
look too
Public TV analyzes the case of the "ghost" manager who charges 826,500 pesos, but does not go to work for the channel
look too
Public Television: the average salary exceeds $300,000 and managers earn more than $1 million per month