According to the last Budget Analysis prepared by the Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI)the current retraction is even above the real drop in the execution of the Budget of the National Public Administration (APN)which descends a 22.8% in real terms.
The CIICTI report warns that if we continue along this path, the projection made indicates that In a single year the fall will be similar to that produced in the four years of former president Mauricio Macri’s administration. between 2015 and 2019.
Currently, the scientific-technological budget is 36 real points per below 2015 valuesat the end of the second presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Blow to science: the government cuts budget and delays expansion of items
Likewise, the review of budget execution revealed that As of the last day of May, 57.6% of the total credit has already been accrued and the 69.46% of the budget allocated to salaries. This occurs because the administration of Javier Milei extended the 2023 budget, prior to the higher inflation 211% of that year.
Meanwhile, eleven of the eighteen organizations that execute salaries within the framework of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation has already consumed more than 75 percent of its credit.
In this regard, the CIICTI considered that, to date, This value should be around 32.2%, taking into account accumulated inflation planned throughout the year. In this sense, the most serious cases appear in organisms such as CONAE, CONICET either CNEA, which are close to 80% execution.
From the research center they indicated that “considering that June alone represents more than 11 percent of the year’s salary expenditure, it becomes evident that sooner or later budget extensions will have to be granted to be able to pay the delayed increases granted within the framework of the sector’s parity.
At the same time, it is observed that Current Credit decreases for the majority of organizations in the sector in the order of 42 percent in real termsBeing the INTI and INTA are the ones that decline the least and the National Universities are the most affectedwith a drop above the real 87 percent compared to 2023.
In the case of CONICET continues to indicate a real drop close to 26.9%, in line with the forecast of the real decline in the organization’s salaries and scholarships.
The real decrease in execution in the first five months reaches 6.9 percent compared to 2023, which marks a smaller drop compared to what is observed in other organizations.
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Science and technology salaries lost fell 23% in 2024
The report evaluated the performance of salaries since Javier Milei’s government took office and found that “In just 6 months of management, and assuming an inflation of 4.7 percent in May, CONICET CIC-CPA salaries have fallen by a real 23 percentthe income of researchers and teachers of the National Universities by 31.7 percent and the remuneration of the staff of the National Public Employment System, by 12.2 percent.”
In this regard, he expressed that “if in the CONICET In October and November 2023 the salary level of December 2015 had been reached, in March they are already 22 points below.
While “in the National Universities “The fall is even more rapid, reaching 38 points from the base month.”
The Government postpones payments in science and cuts items
In relation to the floating debt of the State with the scientific-technological sector, the study emphasized “the unusually high level of debt in non-salary items or related to the payment of scholarships”.
In this sense, he specified that at the end of May “there is postponed 31.1% of payments for capital goods, 28.1% of transfers (mostly to universities and other public and private sector organizations, as well as the payment of subsidies and projects), and 23 .6% of purchases of critical inputs and consumer goods.”
In this way, the CIICTI noted that “along with the delay in updating current credits and the fall in real wagesit is one of the more severe indicators of the disarticulation of the capabilities of the National Science SystemTechnology and Innovation (SNCTI) to develop within the framework of the execution of scientific and technological activities”.
Massive resignations in key area of science and technology due to the adjustment of Javier Milei
All the vowels of the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation (R+D+I) presented their resignation denouncing the government of Javier Milei for his project of destruction and defunding of science.
Through a statement Cristina Teresa Arranz, María Cristina Carrillo, Guillermo Ariel Giraudo, Eduardo Daniel Guillermo, Paula Andrea Lenguita, Javier Héctor Tineo, Osvaldo Daniel Uchitel, Rubén Oscar Zárate and María Alejandra Zinni point out that “their decision is due to the dismantling of the computer platform designed to expedite the evaluation of projects; the separation of the directors of the Argentine Technology Fund and the Fund for Scientific and Technological Research and the reduction of staff.
“The degraded Ministry of Science and Technology had for years two key organizations for the scientific development of the country – they affirm -. In addition to Conicet, the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation consolidated its objectives since its foundation. of financing for the training of human resources, inputs and equipment for research, technology and innovation in the country. It perfected the peer evaluation system, which gave it the international recognition that it has today. 3,000 research, development, and innovation projects, which involved the work of 9,000 leading specialists in different areas of knowledge. Now, for four months, with the inauguration of the current president of the nation, the organization has been paralyzed by an institutional inaction. It was not moderated with the appointment of the president of the organization, Dr. Alicia Caballero.
Source: Ambito
