Almost 9 out of 10 provincial legislatures in Argentina hide data on staff hiring or fund management, among other key indicators for transparency about the operation of this State power.
This is clear from a new investigation by the network of journalists Ruido and Poder Ciudadano, carried out in each of the 23 Argentine provinces and in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
Among the cases detected, there are deputies who earn a double salary, who receive 130 air tickets per month, who use luxury cars seized by Justice (as was known in Córdoba after the Oscar González road accident) or who withdraw millions in protocol expenses without accountability.
The investigation began in February 2024, with the presentation of requests for access to information in each place (there were 30 in total), in which each local Legislature was required to provide data on the number of personnel, salary levels, attendance records or reserved expenses, among 31 items necessary for citizens to know how resources are used in these areas.
Results of the access to information request
Only 3 of the 24 districts responded to the request for access to information with almost complete data. The other 21 either did not respond (15 provinces) or did so partially (in 6 cases).
As for personnel, the number of employees ranges from a few hundred to 3,103 (Catamarca). They are followed by Chaco (2300), province of Buenos Aires (1850) and Formosa (1802).
On the topic of salaries: although information on salaries received as of November 2023 was requested (since the idea was to analyze the constitution of the 2019-2023 legislatures), the data obtained varies between what was received in May 2023 and May 2024, therefore It is very difficult to compare salary levels on the same date.
There are curious cases like that of San Luis, where legislators receive each month an extra (called “modules)” equivalent to a gross salary. They must be surrendered, but there is no evidence that they do so. That is to say that each month they receive, in addition to $1,400,000 in salary, another 1.4 million for that concept.
In relation to advisors: only in 11 of the 24 districts could this data be collected (ranging from 2 to 10 advisors per legislator, as in Tierra del Fuego or Formosa). In the other 13 provinces this data cannot be determined.
Furthermore, in half of the provinces (12) there is no or insufficient data to check the Personnel Attendance Registry. And in the other 12 there are fingerprint, biometric or form-based systems, but it could not be verified that they are used either in all spaces or for the entire staff.
Regarding reserved expenses: in 10 provinces they no longer exist, but in the rest they are either still maintained (in 5 cases) or there is no data to know and/or determine these amounts (8 provinces).
Cordova
In the case of the Unicameral of Córdoba, the report focuses especially on the delivery of high-end cars to legislators, with mention of the fatal accident involving former president of the Legislature Oscar González.
On the other hand, the Córdoba Unicameral reported the amounts allocated to each program, but they are not disaggregated. There are funds for each block and for tickets, but the amounts cannot be known.
There is no list with names of all the staff. Yes, there is data available on the amount of the entire provincial public administration, including the Unicameral. The data of the advisors of each legislator, and the legislative officials, secretaries and deputy secretaries are also published.
The Legislature has a website with an Open Data Portal. Based on the information published there; In the data from the Government of Córdoba site and in media publications it was possible to make a partial survey of what was required.
