Involved in the controversy over undelivered food to community kitchens and suspicions of bonus payments within the Ministry of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovellothrough an official, filed a criminal complaint in Comodoro Py for the irregular hiring of personnel in the Secretariat of Children, Adolescents and Family. Last Wednesday the minister had fired the person in charge of the area, Pablo De la Torre. Yesterday, already back in Buenos Aires after a week abroad, President Javier Milei went to Capital Humano where He spoke for about two hours with the minister and confirmed, for the third day in a row, his absolute support.
Last week, the government announced that Pablo De la Torre was fired “for poor performance of his tasks” and for not having carried out a permanent control of stock and expiration of merchandise.”
However, the criminal complaint filed by Leila Gianni, Legal Undersecretary of Human Capital, does not refer to the controversy over undistributed food, but to the presumption that bonuses were paid at De la Torre’s Secretariat. The case, by lottery, was in charge of Ariel Lijo, the judge that President Milei proposed for the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
Pettovello’s ministry asks that a circuit of hiring officials with funds in dollars provided by the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) be investigated. The story of Federico Fernández, a De la Torre official, is the basis of the complaint from the Ministry of Human Capital.
Fernández appeared mentioned in a journalistic investigation (the program “Argenzuela”, on C5n) about an alleged “bonus payments” in Human Capital, Therefore, the judicial document says, he decided to tell his version to the ministry authorities. Fernández said he had shared a meeting (last January) with three other Human Capital officials (Maximiliano Keczeli, Lucía Raskowsky, and Agustín Sánchez Sorondo) in which “There was talk about hiring personnel.” Fernández maintained that it was Sánchez Sorondo, who left the government before being formally appointed as undersecretary, who suggested making the hiring “through the OEI.”
The ministry states that “There are currently no current contracts” from the OEI, and that the last ones were paid in April. The complaint explains how the contracts were paid: “the money that some of the consultants received was changed to US dollars in order to reduce the volume of bills, being delivered directly to workers who were not part of the current payroll and others to low-paid officials. Finally, The remaining money in dollars was delivered to Pablo De la Torre, to pay off the staff who were never named.” Fernández “wanted to record that Minister Pettovello was not aware of this irregular situation,” appears in the complaint accessed by this media.
At the same time that the Human Capital complaint became known, Minister Pettovello and De la Torre were criminally denounced for the same case of alleged irregular hiring of professionals who billed for unproven services through an agreement with the OEI.
The complaint was presented by the lawyer, teacher, and former Buenos Aires Security official Leonardo Martínez Herrero, who asked to open a case to investigate the alleged crimes of “embezzlement of funds, active and passive bribery, fraudulent administration and illicit association considering the number of people involved.”
In addition to Pettovello, De la Torre and other officials already separated from Capital Humano, The letter incriminates Federico Fernández.
Minister Sandra Pettovello received presidential support
For now the national government closed ranks in defense of Pettovello. “The support for the minister is total, not only from President Milei but from each of the officials. “We are part of this Government,” insisted presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni. “He was never about to resign,” he clarified.
“I am not going to give up the fight against corruption because it is my flag. I am not going to hand over Pettovello in any way,” President Milei said on Sunday. “I do not rule out that this group of Kirchnerist criminals want to kill someone, because Kirchnerists are like that,” he warned.
“Cut it out, president, with the refrain of ‘it’s the Kirchneristas.’ No, president, although it is obvious, What happens in the Ministry of Human Capital is the responsibility of its management teams.“, he replied Cristina Kirchner on social networks.
“Instead of blaming the ‘Kirchnerists’, review your ideas and decisions about creating an unmanageable mega ministry and entrusting it to a person with no management experience in the multiple disciplines it covers. Theorizing on television channels is very easy, governing is something else”, he concluded.
Without speeches, Francos was sworn in as Chief of Staff
The Minister of the Interior until yesterday, Guillermo Francos, was sworn in yesterday as new Chief of Staff of the Nation.
The oath was taken by President Javier Milei in the White Room of the Government House, where the audience of officials, supporters and family He didn’t hear speeches.
