The Minister of Government and Labor of Entre Ríos, Manuel Troncoso, spoke with UNO and took stock of the first six months in the administration and the challenges faced by the management of Frigerio and its portfolio.
He highlighted that Rogelio Frigerio came to govern with “common sense” and that the reason for this government “is to improve the lives of the people of Entre Ríos, listening, being close and living their realities. When politics distances itself from the people, it distances itself from its true purpose.”
Troncoso is at the forefront of reforms to the retirement system and politics; the joint tables with state workers and teachers; the relationship with municipalities, communes and government boards, in a context of economic crisis.
– What is your assessment of these first six months of management?
– In these 6 months we began to straighten the course of our province. We don’t lie to people and we never will. The best way to honor the trust of the people is to first tell the truth, and this government is doing truth and transparency are transversal axes of all management. We have to govern in the midst of one of the worst crises in our history at the national level and having received a province without resources and in a state of backwardness and stagnation, we are doing everything in our power to implement the change that the people of Entre Ríos voted for: keeping our promises, sharpening our creativity and our ability to prioritize, appealing to common sense to manage the limited resources we have. The governor is very clear with the management axes: Austerity, transparency, openness and dialogue and modernization. It can be managed without money and we are proving it every day.
Management axes
– What were the first measures?
– The first thing we did was reorder our priorities and start clean up public accounts, because you cannot make any real and fundamental transformation with finances in the red, or making irresponsible promises that cannot be fulfilled. We made an unprecedented cut to the political staff to end privileges that were practically an acquired right of many public officials. Dozens of official cars that officials previously used for personal matters have now been incorporated into the Entre Ríos Police and local governments that need them. We have also eliminated reserved expenses, We prohibit civil servants from receiving more than one salary from the Public Administration regardless of the roles they assume. These are some of the measures that aim to change a political culture and a method of managing public affairs to which the people of Entre Ríos said enough last year. Taking care of the resources that belong to everyone is basically doing things well and leaving behind the apathy that existed for decades. We know that this will not be achieved overnight, but we are on the right track.
– His ministry is key in management, he is in charge of the political, the relationship with the unions, with the mayors, communes and boards. What are the main measures and actions that you have been able to do?
– From the Executive we have worked on the drafting and presentation of bills andn the Legislative Branch, such as: elimination of privileged retirements, political and electoral reform, public ethics and clean records, and the government transition. We have made a lot of progress in terms of management transparency, with concrete facts, with political decisions and also with discussions in the provincial Legislature. Regarding the link with local governments, since we took office we have promoted a work methodology that marks presence in territory, in serving everyone, in listening, in taking demands and managing solutions. In this national context that forces us to govern without money, we are managing solutions to urgent problems while continuing to project the future. The one-stop shop is a clear example of that, before each mayor or president of the board or commune came to Casa Gris and wandered from office to office, carrying and bringing papers for procedures, atomizing each request and each procedure before the Province. We are changing that, with a single management channel for local governments, to optimize management and that they have greater traceability. In addition, our ministry has the cooperative institute and the link with this sector under its orbit. A few days ago, together with Minister Berisso, they announced a series of measures that include subsidies, microcredits, payment plans and access to social programs for the cooperative sector. It is a political decision to promote and strengthen them because for 20 years the Entre Ríos cooperative institute functioned without an organization, without an organic one that assigned defined roles and tasks. Currently there is no digital registry of the register of cooperatives and mutuals. It doesn’t exist, because it was never made. Our management comes to organize and modernize that.
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– What is the relationship like with state and teacher unions?
– She is very good, with a lot of respect and a lot of dialogue. During these first six months we have forged a serious and sincere dialogue with the unions and workers. We speak with the truth, with the numbers on the table and jointly we offer what we can deliver. So, we managed to establish quarterly agreements to achieve greater predictability in the medium term when negotiating salary adjustments. We also highlight in these months, the commitment and responsibility of unions in this situation of social and economic fragility. We managed to implement sectoral joint ventures, in social development, in health and in education to address working conditions that go beyond exclusive negotiation for salary. The payment of the 15,000 francs owed to the nurses is the result of this joint venture, for example. On the other hand, we have forged a relationship of dialogue with the representatives of the CGT and these days we are making the formation of the tripartite labor council, an institutionalized table made up of government, unions and business chambers. Also, among the actions that we promote from the ministry are the creation of the provincial labor observatory together with the universities and the addiction prevention program in workplaces, which we carry out together with the unions.
– You mentioned the so-called “Political Reform”, what does it consist of?
– In the same way that we have been talking about, bring common sense to the way we vote. We want to make voting easier and clearer for everyone. We are voting with an electoral code that is almost 100 years old and has been patched many times. For this reason, we propose a unification of the electoral legislation in a single norm, where the central thing is that we are going to change the voting instrument for the Single Paper Ballot. The consensus is total in the political arc. We have been having dialogue with all political sectors, opposition, mayors, academics. We want a transparent and economical system that allows the entire electoral offer to be presented on a single ballot provided by the State.
– Finally, you said that you are going to take measures to “avoid the collapse of the Retirement Fund.” What are they?
– They are a series of measures to maintain three pillars of our pension system that have become a flag for the people of Entre Ríos: our own Retirement Fund, the 82% mobile and the retirement age. The measures are to establish a monthly contribution to the Fund that will be made, from their budgets, by the Ministries of Health and Security and Justice, plus the General Council of Education (CGE); an increase of three rate points for employer contributions and personal contributions by active public sector workers, among the main ones. We need to take fundamental, structural measures, otherwise the Entre Ríos pension system will collapse.
