Miguel Pichetto returned to the Senate after two years of absence, to present the annual action program of the nation’s audit (AGN) before the mixed bicameral auditing commission, which, due to its sensitivity, usually includes figures of political weight.
And it did not go unnoticed: he anticipated that he would investigate the vaccination plan, minimized Mauricio Macri’s indebtedness and crossed paths with José Mayans, his former deputy chief in the Peronist bloc.
The action plan is the audits that must be carried out in the year on the previous managements, so that they are later dealt with by Congress. There are still many pending from the Macri government, but the man from Rio Negro anticipated those that will come from Alberto Fernández and spoke about the vaccines.
“There are elements inherent to the contract: unit of payment, value of the vaccine, term. In that audit we must move forward. In addition to the number of vaccines delivered and amounts paid in general and then, undoubtedly, there will have to be one on the distribution in the provincial states. There were 110 million doses purchased. It must be started quickly because in June 2023 it is necessary to respond to a demand from the IMF,” he announced.
Pichetto played down the importance of the audits of the Macri government. “We have to get out of the judicialization of the AGN. I don’t want a forensic audit job,” he was annoyed. It was not an innocent phrase: the Audit has not yet delivered the investment account for 2018 and 2019, which has neither more nor less than an investigation into the credit granted by the IMF.
The meeting had started with a presentation by the president of the AGN, Jesús Rodríguez, but then legislators and auditors played their game. Together Senator Juan Carlos Romero complained that a planned report is on the 2015-2019 debt and asked to extend it. “The debt belongs to the countries, not to the governments,” he pointed out.
Alvaro Gonzalez and Jose Mayans.
The auditor María Teresa González, proposed by the ruling party in the Senate, responded. She doubled down and suggested splitting the audit into dollar and peso credits. Pichetto, who was her boss when they were both senators, crossed her: “The origin of debt is the fiscal deficit,” she equaled.
Mayans couldn’t stand it, he asked for the microphone and spoke to him from the podium, looking him in the face: “This is not a forensic or anthropological scheme. There are papers to file. And it has nothing to do with 2015, 2019 and 2021. We want to know why They asked for 44 billion from the IMF without going through Congress. You are technicians and are here to help us, “he rebuked him.
Pichetto replied: “There is no interest in hiding absolutely anything, on the contrary, we are working on specific data in times of difficulties, where many organizations limit the information. But we are a technical-political support,” he defended.
Then he made a Chicano to Mariano Recalde, who was presiding over the meeting, when he alluded to “a public company” that could be audited. “If you are referring to airlines, I tell you that until 2015 the AGN audited it and then a private company did it,” he was attacked by the company’s president until Macri’s arrival.
“Remain calm, they have a majority in the AGN,” joked the radical deputy Mario Negri. Recalde asked for the 2018 and 2019 investment accounts to see them quickly. The 2016 one was not approved.
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