MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Macri implements pay freeze and eliminates 1.000 “political positions”
President Mauricio Macri said on Monday that government employees in Argentina won't receive pay raises this year as part of a string of measures aimed at cutting spending. Macri also announced the elimination of 1,000 “political positions” and the firing of family members appointed as advisers by government ministers. The measure is expected to save the government about US$75 million. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesWow. President Macri goes full steam ahead to shrink the size of the government!
Jan 30th, 2018 - 06:11 pm - Link - Report abuse -3The government has said the reduction will reach 25 per cent.
Unfortunately, the number is identical to the expansion of government's size since Macri took office in December 2015.
An army of relatives had landed positions in the last two years, and many of those positions were purposely created for the new employees.
Work minister Jorge Triaca is emblematic. His sister Mariana Triaca was, until yesterday, director of the Banco Nación. Her husband, Ernesto Reta, is director of the Banco de Inversión y Comercio Exterior.
Another of Triaca's sisters - Lorena - had landed a job as director of the Agencia de Inversiones. (Both sisters resigned yesterday).
María Cecilia Loccisano, the minister's wife, is undersecretary of Co-ordination of the Ministry of Health.
Triaca faced much criticism recently when an audio surfaced of him treating badly a domestic employee he had fired.
It turned out the employee, Sandra Heredia, had asked Triaca for a raise. Instead of paying her more, Triaca arranged for Heredia to get a job with the Union of Maritime United Workers (SOMU), which the government intervened two years ago and where Sergio Borsalino, Triaca's brother in law is an employee. (Yes, the same union formerly headed by Omar “Caballo” Suárez, who is under arrest on illicit association charges).
According to denunciations, about 200 individuals would have been hired by the intervened union in conditions similar to Heredia's.
So much for the new government's ethics.
Hire 1000 effective workers and fire 1000 ineffective workers. Reekie would not understand the concept.
Jan 30th, 2018 - 06:37 pm - Link - Report abuse +3There's two options here: either Marti doesn't understand the difference between blatant nepotism and effective hiring practices. Or Marti is so incredibly biased he will claim the former is the latter if it's done by a government he supports. Place your bets now folks.
Jan 30th, 2018 - 09:22 pm - Link - Report abuse -4DT,
Jan 31st, 2018 - 06:08 pm - Link - Report abuse +1“blatant nepotism”
Remind me, how many members of CFK's family had positions in her government?
@ML
Jan 31st, 2018 - 06:20 pm - Link - Report abuse -2Sure! How come I could not think of it????
Now I get it. Being a minister's relative guarantees effectiveness. Thank you Marti for rescuing me from the deep abysses of my ignorance!
@DT
Marti's incredible statement is a reflect of his mission: to keep blaming for anything--and more--a government that ceased over two years ago no matter what.
It's the same strategy used by Argentina's media group Clarin, which day after day keeps focus on the “heavy inheritance” left by the previous government, while the current one brings about an aggressive transformation of the social and economical landscape.
@ZB
Jan 31st, 2018 - 11:55 pm - Link - Report abuse -3I don't know, and however many there were it doesn't turn Triaca's employment program for his relatives into an effective hiring practice. The Macri government was supposed to be better than the CFK one, so why is Triaca still a minister?
@DT
Feb 01st, 2018 - 02:49 am - Link - Report abuse -1Your question is fair: Mauricio Macri tirelessly spoke about improving what had been done badly, and leaving in place what had been done well.
However, Zaphod follows Marti's strategy: Whatever the Macri government does, look the other way and revert to what CFK did, or may have done.
Reekio,
Feb 01st, 2018 - 04:58 pm - Link - Report abuse +3“However, Zaphod follows Marti's strategy: Whatever the Macri government does, look the other way and revert to what CFK did, or may have done.”
This is in response to your statements. I never claim that Macri is perfect - he has made a number of mistakes, but I will argue that he is better than hi predecessor.
There are four possible arguments here that can be summarised as:
1. Macri is perfect. CFK could do no right.
2. CFK was perfect.. Macri can do no right.
3. Macri isn't perfect but he's better than CFK was.
4. CFK wasn't perfect but was better than Macri is.
You are arguing 2 and claiming that myself and DT are arguing 1, when I am actually arguing 3.
Poor reekie, ridiculous reekie. He really needs to visit argentina someday to see how things happen here
Feb 01st, 2018 - 05:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The Kirchner years were splendid examples of thousands of purely political, nepotistic, and most partisan political sinecures which at their best were useless and at worst counterproductive and obstructive. We are reminded that the published intent of the new measures includes preventing family members of federal ministers from becoming state employees (something was rampant here during KK times)
“ Recorte en el Estado: reducirán 1 de cada 4 cargos políticos y prohibirán que los ministros tengan familiares en la función pública”
Such things are not going to be miraculously solved in a matter of months, though ridiculous reekie appears to believe that with the appearance of a new government, all manner of ills from past generations of Peronchism have somehow disappeared.
Poor ridiculous reekie.
In Chubut at the moment. A splendid sunny day in Esquel, sucking up the wifi at the Petrobras at the entrance to town.
@ZB
Feb 01st, 2018 - 07:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don't include you in this, but I see too many people on this forum who appear to subscribe to 1 or 2. I don't know if Macri is better in this area than CFK or not, but Triaca's nepotism, and especially the fact he remains a minister despite having done several things that would have got him fired in other countries, deserve criticism rather than dismissal. It also rather undermines Macri's claim to be fighting corruption, as do his various scandals, but we will see.
@DT
Feb 02nd, 2018 - 05:23 pm - Link - Report abuse -3Of course, it's not a matter of arguing which government is “perfect.” In Zaphod's equation, this is a red herring.
What matters most is the general direction of a government. Is a government heading towards more inclusion of all citizens? Or is it favouring a few to the detriment of the most?
Is a government attempting to increase social justice and wealth distribution/redistribution? Or is it concentrating wealth on a few hands?
Now about ineffable Marti: As you can see, he persists in his strategy (whatever happens under Macri, it was worse under Cristina) while he enjoys a sunny Esquel day stealing wifi signal as any average Argentine would do.
@EM
Feb 02nd, 2018 - 09:36 pm - Link - Report abuse -1“What matters most is the general direction of a government. Is a government heading towards more inclusion of all citizens? Or is it favouring a few to the detriment of the most?”
That's what matters most to you, but not to everyone. There's a metaphor about this. Some people are most concerned with sharing the pie out more equally, and others with increasing the size of the pie. And it's always much easier to do the former if you can also do the latter - or if high commodity prices do it for you. (Of course, everyone also disagrees on the best way to increase the size of the pie.)
Anyway, you say it's not about which government is perfect, but I can't think of a time you approved any of Macri's policies, or disapproved of CFK's. Even if you think Macri's government is going in the wrong direction, surely there are some individual policies you like? I though the plan to open Argentina to low cost airlines was a good one. They have revolutionised air travel in Europe, putting foreign holidays within the reach of people who previously could not afford them. In Argentina it should make travel within the country much easier allowing for more tourism.
Ridiculous Reekie: “....a sunny Esquel day stealing wifi signal ...”
Feb 04th, 2018 - 09:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Blissfully unaware Reekie, as usual. The Petrobras station at the edge of town, like the YPF station in the centro, offer wifi as part of the service to clients (do you understand the concept of clients?) and gracefully provide the clave at the tables. A little cortado, a pair of facturas, and we're on our way.
We know you do not understand these matters surrounding Argentina, and invite you to visit this country someday, to dilute your surprisingly endless ignorance about the area.
Let's help Reekie to understand how economies work. Poor Reekie finds fault with what he considers to be “concentration of wealth” but never stops to realise that this erroneously characterised condition is actually a distribution of wealth, since pockets of such “wealth” are in reality the source of productivity, employment, and national development. Though we understand that you abhor such things.
Reekio,
Feb 05th, 2018 - 06:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Of course, it's not a matter of arguing which government is “perfect.””
I agree, it shouldn't be. Positions 1 and 2 are equally unrealistic.
“In Zaphod's equation, this is a red herring.”
Your argument that my equation is a “red herring” is indicative that you recognise that positions 1 and 2 are untenable extremes and I agree with that - that was the point I was making. Do you know what a red herring is?
Can you give a single example of a posting of yours when your position could not be characterised by 2?
Your unwavering support of CFK is akin to being the member of a sect who believes that their leader is an unerring god. My equation simply demonstrates that your behaviour is extreme and unrealistic.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!