There was some concern in social organizations since last week, beyond the usual conflict in the relationship with the government of Javier Milei.
Until late on Friday the 2nd, none of the two most important programs through which social plans are paid had received a single peso: neither for the Empower Work nor for Food Policies, colloquially known as the Alimentar Card.
"The date is the 5th, we'll see," agreed
a
social leader who cultivates dialogue with a left-wing picketer who usually blocks streets and leads protests.
Finally, the date was the 4th, because early this Sunday on the official Open Budget page you could see the transfers made to both
In total, more than $243,000 million were transferred
to the two programs that depend on the Ministry of Children, Adolescents and Families
.
In the case of Empower Work, it is a universe of 1.2 million beneficiaries;
The Alimentar Card affects around four million people.
For Potenciar Trabajo, which pays beneficiaries half a vital and mobile minimum wage per month ($78,000), exactly $110,993 million were allocated, while the Alimentar Card ($69,000 for a typical family with two children) received funds. for $132,347 million.
For the entire year, between both items, it is expected that they will receive $2.1 billion: $1.025 billion in the case of the Empower Work and $875,000 million for the Alimentar Card.
Added together, both figures represent an equivalent
of $7,147 million per day during the first 34 days of the year
.
Taking into account that the official average dollar during January was $818.34, it represents an expenditure of almost $300 million only in the first full month of Javier Milei's management: exactly $297.36 million.
The number is a little behind compared to the spending that the president inherited from the Kirchner administration: in 2023 the equivalent of US$5,928 million was spent, contemplating an average dollar of $295.20.
But it is still a level of injection of important funds, especially because the transfer mechanism, at least until now, remains the same as that implemented during the Alberto Fernández government.
"It's all the same, what there is is a verification and monitoring unit that controls that the beneficiaries fulfilled the tasks assigned to them, agreed upon with the executing unit, which pays the funds, and a controller unit, which eliminates presenteeism," maintains a source from the sector regarding the operation of the system.
This means that
social organizations such as the Polo Obrero, Libres del Sur, Barrios de Pie or the Corriente Clasista y Combativa
, among others, continue to manage the resources and from there they send them to the beneficiaries.
The control of who does or does not comply with the four working hours of work continues to be very diffuse, as was the case during the K government.
According to official sources, Pettovello, however, and the Secretary of Children, Adolescents and Family Pablo de la Torre, are working with their teams to have a very clear map of who should be paid and who should not.
Minister Sandra Pettovello, arguing with protesters.
Protest over lack of funds for cafeterias
“People are hungry, let them come.
I am going to serve the people who are hungry one by one, but not the referents.
Are people hungry?
I am going to serve the people who are hungry one by one, not the referents.
Come one by one, I will write down your ID, your name, where you are from and you will receive help individually,” Minister
Sandra Pettovello
told the picketers who went last week to protest at the Casa Patria Grande Néstor Kirchner, in the Retiro neighborhood, where it has its main offices.
The claim of the social leaders, as
Clarín
reflected , has to do with
the lack of food in soup kitchens
and Pettovello's decision to step on the sending of resources.
Thus, after protesting last week in supermarkets, the movements that make up the UTEP will mobilize thousands of people to the Pettovello offices on Monday.
“We are going to line up so that he can serve them one by one, as he requested.
We will have to go around the block several times,” said one of the leaders of Evita and Somos Barrios de Pie, who are driving the action.
The Government boasts of having increased the amounts of individual food cards by 75%.
However,
so far the transfers have only been made to 2,000 establishments of the at least 10,000 existing ones
.
“They ignore that the demand in the dining rooms has grown by 60% due to the crisis,” said the general secretary of the UTEP Alejandro Gramajo, a leader of the Evita Movement.
The Executive, meanwhile, is moving forward with an audit of the dining rooms.
Official sources and the movements agree that the information circulating in the National Registry of Community Dining Rooms and Picnic Areas (ReNaCoM) is not reliable and is not updated.
More than 40,000 signed up there.