Rarely is
the direct relationship between corruption and poverty
as evident as in the recent scandal with the insurance contracted by ANSeS uncovered by Clarín: Osvaldo Giordano, the former official who during his brief time at the organization canceled the maneuver, explained that it He did so simply because the system imposed during the presidency of the now accused Alberto Fernández was much more expensive than the one that had governed for decades.
By hiring Nación Seguros (and in the middle giving astronomical commissions to brokers close to Fernández and former minister Sergio Massa),
ANSeS spent about $20,000 million per year
to insure retirees and pensioners to whom it gave loans.
With the previous self-insurance system (charging retirees themselves a small percentage of the loan and with that forming a fund to cover eventual losses), it was much cheaper.
It was cheaper
for us .
Because, who was really the one who paid extra for someone to make a deal?
The state.
That is, us,
all of us
.
ANSeS was not the only agency to participate in the work.
Gendarmerie, Foreign Ministry and other organizations also contributed to the wealth of the brokers - and the politicians who bit them - and to the poverty of the rest of the Argentines.
The statistics are unequivocal.
According to the corruption perception index published by Transparency International, the
10 countries with the least corruption in the world
are Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg.
According to a study by US News & World Report, the marketing company WPP and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the
10 countries that offer the best quality of life
are Sweden, Norway, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Australia, Germany , New Zealand and Belgium.
Eight names
out of ten are repeated
.
It can't be a coincidence.
Neither does nine of them also appear in the top 25 in the PISA tests: poor education contributes, like high corruption, to poor performance in the economy.
They are key to development.
Like fiscal balance.
Let's clarify: by having good education and being transparent (cause) those countries are richer (consequence).
It doesn't work the other way around.
It's not that they stopped being corrupt and invested in education when they reached a certain level of income.
Giordano spoke of a 40% surcharge.
About $8 billion a year.
About 75,000 minimum retirements.
Again: that is the money that we Argentines put in too much - or that we stopped using in other issues - only in ANSeS.
The insurance scandal left another in the background.
In common, they have to demonstrate
the generosity of politicians when it comes to distributing money that is not theirs
, that is, ours.
And to the ANSeS: the organization finally revealed how much former presidents and their families earn as retirees or pensioners.
As the main data, it emerges from there that
Cristina Kirchner receives $14,548,836.38 each month
, although after the discounts “just” $9,448,101.84 reaches her pocket.
The figure arises from adding her retirement as former president ($8,107,506.01) plus her pension as the widow of a president ($6,441,330.37).
There are 142 minimum retirements
.
It exceeds what former Spanish presidents earn (about $6,500 a month), but it is less than what former British prime ministers receive (about $11,000 a month).
In any case, it should surely be enough to cover your expenses.
However, the list reveals other striking situations of privilege.
For example,
Amado Boudou
, convicted of corruption in the Ciccone case and disqualified from holding public office,
takes $4,244,250.75 gross
.
And that Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, president for just one week, was paid $6,682,948.04 ($4,807,391.73 in his pocket).
It is also verified there that the only person in the same situation as Cristina, María Estela Martínez,
better known as Isabel Perón
, who is also a former president and widow of a president, does not receive two allowances like her colleague but only one, for $3,603,023. .94.
Two other cases are, at the very least, curious.
Zulema Yoma collects $5,741,434.81 in gross pension as the widow of Carlos Menem, who died in 2021. However,
the couple had divorced in 1991
.
Finally, Amalia Carmen Guido appears, daughter of José María Guido, who was president between 1962 and 1963 after the military coup that overthrew Arturo Frondizi.
Psychologist, born in 1949, in her social networks Amalia Guido presents herself as retired, graduated from the University of Salvador and lives in Viedma.
Her father died in 1975. Her mother, who received a privilege pension as the widow of a president, died in 1998.
By decree, the government of
Carlos Menem then decided that the pension would pass to Guido's daughter
, who was already 50 years old.
He justified it because the woman
was single
.
Last month he earned $3,397,134.14 in his pocket.