In a context of crisis, with monthly inflation in double digits and poverty above 40%, the Government continues to increase social spending, to the point that in the first five months of the year it has already allocated a figure in pesos equivalent to about US $ 2,700 million in assistance. At this rate, it is expected that, at this rate, it will far exceed US $ 5,000 million by the end of 2023.
The election year also plays its part: the two main programs to which the funds are transferred depend on the Minister of Social Development, Victoria Tolosa Paz, and are mostly resources sent to the province of Buenos Aires, which governs Axel Kicillof. Both are shaping up to compete in a Frente de Todos PASO for governor.
In the first 151 days of the year, $ 560,798 million left the official coffers towards the Empower Work and Food Policies, the two central funds of Social Development, which control leaders of the Evita Movement and La Cámpora, respectively.
Piquetero march, on May 18. Photos Drone Julian Meyer.
Per day, the disbursement is equivalent to $ 3,713 million, 37.6% more than the $ 2,698 million it represented in January.
The figure represents more than half of the planned budget for the entire year, which amounts to $ 1.03 trillion adding both budget items. Measured at an average official dollar of $ 204.53, as of May 31,exactly US $ 2,741.8 million were injected into social plans.
The figure is for five months, so, following this pace of execution, it is expected to exceed US $ 5,000 million by the end of the year. As a parameter, in dollars, in all of last year they had been spent at a rate of US $ 3,688 million.
Empowering Work, the focus of criticism
Since the figure of the Empower Work plan was created, at the beginning of 2020, it became the most controversial program of all those that make up the state social organization chart. It is a half living and mobile minimum wage that is paid to each beneficiary who receives it, in most cases, with piquetero leaders as intermediaries.
To date, there are more than 1.2 million beneficiaries of Empower Work plans, a figure that was minimally reduced in recent months after an audit made by the AFIP and that, Tolosa Paz through, resulted in the decision to cut subsidies to those who do not meet the requirements to receive the plan but still did.
Emilio Pérsico, Secretary of Social Economy and leader of the Evita Movement.
The monthly credit of $ 42,256 that the beneficiaries currently charge should have a consideration of four hours a day of work, from Monday to Friday, which in fact very few end up fulfilling. That motivated the criticism of the opposition, especially because who is in charge of administering the funds of the Empower Work is Emilio Pérsico, as secretary of Social Economy. At the same time, the Evita Movement that the piquetero leads is one of the organizations that receives the most plans, above 150,000, it is believed.
In the first five months of the year, in concept of Empower Work the funds that were transferred were $ 302,179 million, 52% of the $ 590,981 million that they have to reach to operate throughout 2023. With rising inflation, salaries, bonuses and bonuses that must be paid, it is discounted that the resources of the program will not reach and that the item must be updated before the October elections.
The Food Card, the other key box
Unlike Empowering Work, which internally controls the Evita Movement, Food Policies, the other predominant plan in Social Development, is administered by referents of La Cámpora, the group that responds politically to Máximo Kirchner.
In charge of an annual budget of $ 422,755 million is Laura Valeria Alonso, camporista leader, who until May 31 already had to manage $ 258,617 million, 58% of the total funds of the program. Following this line, the resources of Food Policies will also be exhausted before the elections and the Government will have to increase them in the middle of the campaign.
The Food Card is delivered to 1.4 million beneficiaries, but directly impacts some four million people. Currently, the funds they receive to buy food range from $ 17,000 to $ 34,000, depending on whether they have between one and three children.
Unlike the Empowering Work, the funds paid for the Food Card are transferred directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries, since they are the same people to whom ANSeS pays the Universal Child Allowance monthly.
How is the bid for piquetero power in the ministry
Social Development is a ministry divided by social organizations related to Kirchnerism, since before Tolosa Paz assumes office, in October. Already in the previous efforts of Daniel Arroyo and Juan Zabaleta, the struggle for territorial power was a constant.
With the Evita Movement and La Cámpora facing each other for some time in the midst of the struggle between Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, other social referents also have internal firepower, such as Juan Grabois, through leaders who respond to him such as Ramona Fernanda Miño, the Secretary of Socio-Urban Integration.
Last year, Grabois lost one of his soldiers, fired by Pérsico after internal differences: it was Rafael Klejzer, of the Dignity Movement, who was national director of Integrative Policies and already outside the Government is the one who is leading piqueteros operations of price controls in supermarkets.
There are also loyalists of Pérsico and Alberto Fernández, such as Daniel Menéndez, of Somos Barrios de Pie, who serves as undersecretary of integration and training policies, and was one of the initial promoters of price controls, in addition to having motorized a march against the countryside towards La Rural that finally ended up taking place at the gates of Congress.
In March, Clarín announced a series of discretionary transfers that were sent to Social Development in 2022, for $ 14,000 million, among which stand out remittances to social organizations that respond politically to Pérsico, Esteban Castro, Grabois, Klejzer and Menéndez.
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