IMF Loan to Argentina under Macri’s Government Described as “Scandalous” and “Crime” by Current Leaders

Vice President Cristina Fernández described the loan granted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the government of Mauricio Macri as “scandalous” and assured that, in its subsequent execution, government officials from Cambiemos (currently Together for Change) committed irregularities to “swindle the Argentine people”. Likewise, President Alberto Fernández considered that the credit that Macri took “more than debt is a crime.”

In a series of tweets that she published yesterday morning, the ex-president made reference in this way to the report approved yesterday by the college of auditors of the General Audit Office of the Nation (AGN), which detected numerous irregularities in the granting and subsequent use of the credit conferred by that international organization.

“What you are going to see and hear in this 5:16 minute video; it is not the opinion of a political party or an opposition leader. It is the result of the report approved by the AGN that details the enormous number of violations of the law committed in the granting and subsequent execution of the IMF loan. Look at it! What they did and what happened is scandalous!” wrote the head of the Senate.

In the publication that she accompanied with a video in which a voice-over recounts the mishaps the country suffered after the agreement, the Vice President explained that the AGN is the constitutional body that, according to article 85 of the Magna Carta, has the control of legality, management and auditing of all state activity.

In a second post that he titled “IMF Agreement. First part”, Fernández de Kirchner added: “In this second part, which we could title ‘Manganeta Chronology’, details how Macri officials exchanged roles and functions to commit this scam to all the Argentine people”.

This text was accompanied by a second video detailing the chronology of the anomalies committed by the then Ministries of Finance and Finance of the Cambiemos management.

Audit Details

The AGN report warns that “the magnitude and characteristics of the agreement had an adverse impact on the structure of the debt and its risks” by ensuring that it was an “extraordinary and exceptionally high loan.”

At a meeting of the college of auditors, the general auditor, Francisco Fernández -in his capacity as president of the Public Debt Supervision Commission- explained the “main findings of the report” and the importance of this audit as it is the first to be carried out on an IMF loan.

“The signed agreement, of almost 57 billion dollars, turned out to be the most important in the history of Argentina and also in the history of the Fund, representing 127 times the indebtedness capacity of our country,” recalled Auditor General Fernández.

The audit report also highlighted that, for the loan, “commissions and expenses were paid to the IMF for more than thirteen billion pesos equivalent, for example, to 52 percent of the Conicet budget in 2018.

Already with the record loan granted, the detail of the auditors stressed that “almost thirty percent of the IMF disbursements were used to finance the outflow of financial capital.”

In conclusion, the specialized audit indicated that “the processes and procedures related to the loan did not ensure efficiency and effectiveness in debt management, causing legal breaches, affecting prudence in debt management, and violating adequate supervision of financing “.

Even with this evidence exposed in technical facts, the head of the AGN and leader of Together for Change, Miguel Pichetto, used his social networks to clarify some points and defend the macrismo debt-taking process. “Yesterday the Audit Office analyzed the agreement with the IMF signed in 2018. I maintained that the agreement complied with the established rules and procedures,” he stated. And he added that “the criticisms expressed by the ruling party are unaware of the specific processes for taking loans with the IMF and are irrelevant.”

Likewise, it considered that “the discussion on the validity of the agreement was definitively settled by Congress in 2022, when it approved its refinancing and increased the debt by USD 4.4 billion.”

Finally, Pichetto asserted that “the opportunity chosen to criticize the IMF when the government imperiously negotiates an advance of 10,000 million dollars for an economy in a critical state is striking.”

the presidential word

President Fernández also used his social networks to refer to the results of the AGN report. “More than a debt, it is a crime. The report of the General Audit of the Nation shows that the IMF loan taken by Macri has violated Argentine law and must be investigated with the full weight of Justice,” said the president.

Along these lines, he said that “the report adds to the complaint that I filed in 2021, through the Anti-Corruption Office, against Macri and government officials, such as Dujovne, Caputo, Sturzenegger and Sandleris, for fraud and embezzlement of public funds. , stopped by federal judge Capuchetti”.

In addition, Fernández indicated, “by my own indication, the State became a complainant. Already in December 2021 the IMF had recognized that Cambiemos did not carry out any capital control to prevent the escape of US$ 45 billion. It was a first report, we await the full audit”.

Finally, the President stated that “once again, we denounce the spurious way in which Mauricio Macri took on the debt: bypassing Congress and mortgaging our future. We continue to demand that Justice investigate the complaints.”

The AGN report, which has 200 pages and will be released in its entirety in a couple of weeks, will be sent to federal judge María Eugenia Capuchetti. Magistrate in charge of the case against Mauricio Macri, Luis Caputo (former Minister of Finance) and Federico Sturzenegger (former head of the BCRA) for the crimes of embezzlement and fraudulent administration in the contracting of credit with the IMF in 2018 and the subsequent diversion of the resources obtained.

The intervening prosecutor charged the three mentioned and two other former members of Macri’s economic teams. However, none of the five was called even once to testify by Capuchetti, despite the fact that he had spent more than a year and a half since that accusation.