The National Government still has not sent the funds committed to the Social Security Funds of the provinces, leaving them defunded and accumulating a two-month debt. This lack of transfer of resources evidences a worrying situation for the provinces that did not transfer their retirement systems to the central Government, as reported by the Minister of Economy, Treasury and Finance of FormosaJorge Ibáñez.
The cuts and adjustment measures, so touted by the Government of Javier Milei, reached the provincial pension funds. So far in 2024, They have not yet received the monthly funds that must be sent to the districts that did not transfer their retirement systems to the Nation. This directly harms the Formosa Social Security Fund, one of the 13 that maintained its retirement system.
Along these lines, he explained that these are the funds that this group of provinces (which includes Formosa) must receive monthly as part of the Federal Commitment signed in 1999, where the national government agreed to pay the provinces that did not transfer their pension funds.
Although the sums They haven’t been updated in a while., the previous governments fulfilled this commitment. Until now, President Milei’s management owes the month of January and February.
In this way, the current national government denies assumed obligationssince the shipment for the Formosa Pension Fund and the rest of the districts appears in the 2023 Budget (law 27,701), extended by Decree 88/2023 of President Milei, said Ibáñez.
And he added that the same actions have been seen with the Teacher Incentive Funds (FONID) and other funds related to teacher salaries, whose payment has been assumed by the Province on an exceptional basis during the month of February.
Budget 2023
Furthermore, the minister pointed out that, according to article 92 of law 27,701, ANSES must transfer these funds before the 20th of each month“as an advance on account of the final result of the deficit corresponding to each pension system, an amount equivalent to one twelfth of the total amount of the last annual deficit, provisional or definitiveformed for each of them.”
Each monthly advance will be updated based on variations in the retirement mobility index of the Argentine Integrated Pension System (SIPA).
Ibáñez stated that “The last disbursement of money dates back to December 20, which was authorized during the administration of the now former president Alberto Fernández”.
Why are the funds transferred to the 13 provincial retirement funds?
Likewise, the minister pointed out that in 1992, when the privatization of the retirement system was defined, the provinces agreed to give up 15% of their co-participating resources to finance the ANSES deficit and a year later 11 provinces agreed to transfer their pension systems to the Nation.
There were 13 provinces that did not accept the transfer: Formosa, Buenos Aires, Chaco, Chubut, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, La Pampa, Misiones, Neuquén, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Tierra del Fuego and Corrientes.
To put all the districts of the country on an equal footing, the Nation agreed in 1999 (with the Federal Commitment) to finance the deficit of the provinces that did not transfer their pension funds, in exchange for reducing public spending in their respective jurisdictions and the creation of an anti-cyclical fund, financed with co-participable resources.
This general regulation was complemented with specific agreements between each province and the ANSES. The funds to the pension funds, although they must be transferred by said administration, depend on the Ministry of Economy, in charge of Luis Caputo.
If the same actions were maintained as with the FONID, the passive workers of Formosa would also be harmed by the president’s unilateral decision, Ibáñez warned at the end.
Source: Ambito
