MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kirchner government payroll balloons at 441 per day rate

Kirchner increase 7% public employes

Argentina last year under President Nestor Kirchner contracted 161.000 government employees at federal, provincial and municipal level, which is equivalent to 441 per working day, (or 18 every 60 minutes) according to La Nacion Sunday edition.

At federal level the Argentine government payroll since President Kirchner took office (May 2003 until first quarter of 2007) expanded by 34.037, from 265.340 to 299.337. According to La Nacion this means that in the 1.517 days of Kirchner's government, the rate of incorporation to public service was 22 per day. But the figure is really higher since if only applied to working days the number soars to 33. La Nacion worked out the situation from official Ministry of Economy statistics. However the situation is far more serious because statistics show the number of new contracts and should also include the replacements of civil servants who retire or abandon their jobs", argues Osvaldo Giordano, head of NGO Argentina Social Development. Furthermore new contracts do not include all the staff from companies once privatized and which have again been absorbed by the Argentine government companies, i.e. Post Office, Water & Sewage plus the new energy and satellite companies, Enarsa and Arsat. Something similar has happened with several of the train companies which have ceased to belong to the private sector and belong to another corporation where the Argentine government is the main shareholder. All this sums up to an additional 23.000 new staff which means the 22 per day actually is 54 per day since President Kirchner occupies the Casa Rosada. "And this impressive avalanche was mainly concentrated in 2006, which was not an election year as is 2007", points out economist Manuel Solanet. The respected Foundation Mediterranea adds that the situation is similar or even more shocking at provincial level: in Tierra del Fuego and Buenos Aires province, one of every two pesos in paid out in salaries. At the other end of the pyramid are Santiago del Estero, Misiones and San Luis ranking between 33 and 34%. On the other hand Giordano points out that provincial government are also responsible for labor intensive activities such as law and order and education, which mean "bureaucracy is more luxuriant at national level". Another way of increasing the payroll is through direct contracting by the different ministries which points out La Nacion, have soared in the last twelve months. Cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez office now has 1.032 staff compared to 856 last December. Planning Minister Julio De Vido now has an additional staff of 1.542, with contracts jumping from 2255 to 3797 in the last twelve months from March. Ousted Economy Minister Felisa Miceli figures with 551 new contracts and the Labor ministry soared 41% from 3858 to 5431. Contracts normally have an expiring date but "most of them end up as full permanent civil servants", underline Giordano and Solanet. Another responsibility for the Argentine Treasury in the 1.5 million new pensioners incorporated to the system following an amnesty period, plus the yet unknown number of those who have been lured to abandon the private savings system and return to the pension funds managed by the government.