The “line”, the entity’s career professionals, are beginning to look with concern at how the new president, Daniel Tillard, executes spending. They point to the “unnecessary” salaries of Juan Pablo Pedemonte and Fernando Barravecchia, but also to the probable loan to Independiente and to 20 departmental managers receiving high salaries without doing their job.
The Argentine National Bank (BNA), which was removed from the list of privatizable companies in the Ley Bases, operates in a similar way to YPF (although the latter is a public limited company): state ownership does not prevent them from making discretionary spending, but rather facilitates it. In the case of the oil company, the directors have salaries of $77 million per month, and they can also collect a bonus with company shares.
In the case of the BNA it does not go that far, but Some career employees are beginning to fear that the “clown pocket” of Daniel Tillard, its current president, will reopen the discussion about the need to privatize it. The worrying data are several. Two of them linked to specific employees, one by modus operandi and another by symbolic value.
The first case is that of Fernando Barravecchia, a Computer Science specialist received from the CAECE UniversitySo far, nothing out of the ordinary, but the question is that he was appointed deputy department manager – he defines himself as such on his Linkedin profile – for the purchase of computer equipment, a responsibility that fell to Purchasing and Contracting before his appointment.
Barravecchia’s entry, effective in March of this year, not only assured him a salary close to $8 million, but his position doubles responsibility with the Purchasing and Contracting area. “We are afraid that it will end with an IBM-Banco Nación case”, defines a very experienced employee. Others consider this comparison exaggerated, but everyone agrees that the “ravioli” created for Barravecchia was not necessary.
High salaries, but no function
The waste does not end with the Barravecchia case. It is also pointed out Juan Pablo Pedemonte, the son of former general manager María del Carmen Barros, who rose to fame for hiring “Pity The Numerologist” and ended up being fired from office. Pedemonte was removed from the hierarchical position he held, and was left without duties, but he continues to earn a salary close to 8 million pesos.
Furthermore, the Pedemonte environment maintains its privileges. For example, Mauricio Damián Ramírez, a personal friend of Barros’s son and his wife. In just two years within the BNA, Ramírez obtained a Department Headship, a position that takes any career official around 20 years to achieve.
As if all this were not enough, At Headquarters there are 20 departmental managers earning high salaries, as appropriate based on experience and seniority; but without fulfilling functions and outside the organizational chart. A policy that Barros inaugurated in 2022, when he flooded management with his friends from the Congress Zonal Management, displacing more qualified employees. Tillard didn’t lift a finger to correct that.
The other controversial issue is the probable loan to Club Atlético Independiente. From a football perspective, it is one of the most important in Argentina. But, from the credit risk point of view, the BNA does not grant loans to non-profit civil associations (this would be the first time), it was able to pay its debts thanks to a collection by the influencer Santiago Maratea, and yet it still faces various embargoes.
