Contrary to Javier Milei’s chainsaw, the Governor Axel Kicillof applied in his first administration as head of the province of Buenos Aires a “public employment inflator: in four years he requested the Buenos Aires Legislature to create 70,804 loads to occupy different sectors of the provincial State administration.

A performance that any employment agency would envy: on average For each of the 1,460 days that the Governor occupied, he appointed 48.3 agents in ministries, schools, hospitals, police stations or prison areas.

The data is recorded in the three budget laws that the Buenos Aires Parliament approved to define expenses and resources in the 2021 periods; 2022 and 2023. In the first year of government, Kicillof had to read the 2019 law because there was no agreement to carry out a project in the middle of the transition with María Eugenia Vidal (2015-2019). In 2024 the same thing will happen: without agreements with the opposition there is no Budget law.

The calculation on the requests to designate a personal figure in a report prepared by advisors to provincial senator Marcelo Daletto (Cambio Federal-UCR) who is a member of the Budget and Political Reform commission. It reveals that at the end of Kicillof’s first term, they worked in different areas of the administration, 709,974 state employees.

90% is distributed in the General Directorate of Schools (398,293); the Ministry of Security (117,356); Health (62,490); the Judicial Branch (32,244) and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (31,977), where the Penitentiary Service operates.

As explained by the technicians who prepared the work, “each of these positions is established in the Budget laws. And in each preparation of the law, the ministers request quotas to cover the needs of their areas so that they are approved by the Legislature.”

that record does not include the so-called “political positions”, which are formalized in the administration with other regulations or decrees. In that item Kicillof also applied the compressor to give air to the creation of positions: until October 2023, had enabled the arrival of 1,852 officials (ministers, secretaries, undersecretaries and provincial directors). They were part of the scheme that made the 20 ministries and secretariats that they designed to set up the Government function.

they represented more than double the 769 officials who finished their mandate in December 2019 with Vidal. After October last year, when the trip to Marbella of the then Chief of Staff, Martín Insaurralde, was revealed, the governor decided to eliminate that distribution. He also reduced the Chief of Staff of Advisors that was created to place Carlos Bianco, who was replaced by the former mayor of Lomas de Zamora in 2021 after the defeat in the midterm elections. And after a meeting in Calafate, with Cristina Kirchner.

Now – according to a work prepared by the provincial deputy Claudio Frangul (UCR) – Just over 1,800 officials in 19 public departments remain in operation. “The head of Advisors was not dissolved. “Bianco left the position and went to the Ministry of Government, but the structure continues as it was,” according to what he told Clarion Deputy Frangul.

What’s more: in that space Spaces were opened for some former officials of Alberto Fernández’s government. Only one case reported by the radical deputy: Marcela Cortiellas, who was director of the former Ministry of Women of the Nation, went on to occupy the directorate of Relations with Companies and Workers’ Organizations of the Head of Advisors to the Governor.

Nor are contracts, scholarships, location of work and other forms of state employment that subsist in different areas. “That number is impossible to establish because the items come from each distribution and there is no control over that.” Neither do the advisors and collaborators of the Legislature. There is another sector of gray there. Which emerged strongly with the so-called “Chocolate” Rigau scandal.

The payment of the state salaries represents the most relevant expense of the Buenos Aires budget. At the end of fiscal year 2023, the commitment to the more than 709,900 workers represented 42.36%. It didn’t always turn out this way.

According to the work of Daletto’s office, in 2015 – around the end of Daniel Scioli’s mandate (2007-2015) – public funds accounted for 49.98% of total spending. With Vidal it ended at 42.37% and in 2022 it hit the floor of 40.94%. Then he rebounded.

But here another variable comes in. Kicillof’s budget always received relevant help from “discretionary” items sent by the national Treasury. It represented more than 10% of the total resources planned for the years 2022 and 2023. Given a larger volume of total resources, the salary incidence fell slightly.

As is known, that financial license was cut with the arrival of Javier Milei. The President suspended the Fiscal Strengthening Fund, the Teacher Incentive Fund, the Transportation Fund and other programs. In less than a quarter, Kicillof stopped receiving almost $800 billion. In the office of the senator of the Federal Front they estimate that this mountain of money It is equivalent to “two wage masses” . In other words: what it costs the provincial treasury to pay the entire two months of salary to the entire state workforce.

However, in line with his positioning as a firm opponent of libertarian policies, Kicillof He does not think about reducing public jobs. And it does not plan to delay the salary of state workers either.. Nothing that can associate it with Milei’s “chainsaw” or “blender.”

This week he met with the unions that represent agents in the sector for the “monthly parity” that he has implemented since inflation got out of control. For May he proposed an average improvement of 7.5%, but during the year he already granted: 25% in January; 20% in February; 13.5 in March and 9.5% in April. United Nations average salary in the provincial administration is above 400 thousand pesosaccording to calculations made by the unions.

Anticipating a difficult year, in December the governor obtained the approval of a tax law that contemplated increases of up to 200% in property taxes: real estate and automotive. With the removal of discounts that were in effect, the increase reaches 270%. He also foresaw the possibility of updating the quotas for those taxes. He did not use the prerogative in the installment that expires in June.

The distribution of the 70,804 new public jobs created during Kicillof’s administration explains some guidelines that marked the economist’s first mandate.

In March 2020, due to the health emergency derived from Covid, it was necessary strengthen the health system. That frames the creation of 4,500 positions which were occupied in hospitals, health centers, therapy rooms, field establishments and in administrative areas of that department that was first commanded by Daniel Gollán and then replaced Nicolás Kreplak. The pandemic would be the reason why the health area was in third place on the list of ministries with the most job creation.

Second place was taken by Ministery of security and it is easier to explain: there was 22,814 new spaces which were -mostly- by the police officers who graduated from the academies and went on to join the Bonaerense, the largest crime control and prevention institution in Argentina.

Citizen demand for public insecurity throughout the territory (where more than one million crimes are reported per year) demands an increase in the security force. This task was directed by Sergio Berni between 2019 and 2023. Special divisions, tactical and rapid intervention groups, decentralized agencies and other divisions were created throughout the immense expanse of the provincial territory.

Some organizations have a larger staff. It is the case of the General Directorate of Schools, where the more than 360 thousand teachers and professors who support one of the largest educational systems in Latin America report: 5.1 million students in 16 thousand educational establishments of all levels.

In the case of Education, The budget contemplates the creation of “lecture hours”. As explained by the technicians of that entity, 17 “teaching hours” are equivalent to a position as a graduate teacher (MG). It would be a “unit of measurement” equivalent to that of a public employee. In May 2024, the MG will receive a salary of $441 million, based on the joint agreement that the authorities are about to close with the unions.

Throughout the first period of Kicillof’s government, the creation of 650,019 teaching hours or just over 38,200 positions. Here other interpretations begin to emerge. The possibility of opening places for teachers is a useful tool for unions.

he Suteba, led by Kirchnerist leader Roberto Baradel, manages training and education programs that are nourished by “lecture hours” granted by the Schools Directorate. “That also explains the affinity of the teaching unions with the Governor,” they interpret in the office of the opposition senator.

The elasticity of the Teacher’s Statute – which allows a load to be occupied by up to three people, due to the staff leave regime – also accounts for part of this constant increase in the educational area.

In the offices on 6th Street, where the Government operates, they have arguments to defend the increase in the workforce in the State. One has statistical roots: “Buenos Aires is the province with the lowest rate of public employment in relation to the population.”

Another: “New citizen demands have been incorporated that require greater presence and assistance from the public sector,” they say near Kicillof’s offices. For example, the Ministry of Women – which was inaugurated in 2019 – required the generation of 381 functions.

“We inaugurated more than 130 schools and 1,000 new classrooms will be enabled. During the pandemic we incorporated more than double the intensive care units that the system had. How does that structure work? With workers,” the ruling party responded.

Some final considerations contained in the report. The positions requested in the budget do not cover all movements in public departments. The thing is that sick leave due to retirement or other reasons must be added to that number. “That is why no new positions appear in Vidal’s management. But it does not mean that the governor has not appointed people. “She filled all those that were opened due to vacancies,” they clarified.

It is estimated that every year about 10,000 vacancies are made available in all ministries. In the province There is no mechanism that allows the “redistribution” of positions based on needs. “The position belongs to a specific ministry and it remains there. It cannot be transferred,” they maintained.

The Fiscal Responsibility Law (25,917) to which Buenos Aires adhered requires the presentation of semiannual reports with precise data on the level of employment in the public sector. That does not happen and to know this record it is necessary to review the budgets in detail.

La Plata (Correspondent)