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In the first half of 2024, the Senate spent $2.057 billion on tickets and travel expenses, 35% more than last year - Infobae
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En el primer semestre de 2024, el Senado gastó $2.057 millones en pasajes y viáticos, un 35% más que el año pasado
Los senadores usaron 2.206 tramos aéreos entre enero y junio, un 33% más que en el mismo período de 2023, según el análisis realizado por Infobae. El aumento está vinculado a la mayor actividad legislativa
www.infobae.com
September 10, 2024
Senators used 2,206 flights between January and June, 33% more than in the same period in 2023, according to the analysis carried out by Infobae. The increase is linked to the greater legislative activity
By Mariel Fitz Patrick and Sandra Crucianelli
In the first half of 2024, the Senate - the Chamber most unruly to the Government's wishes, where the ruling party has a marked minority - spent $2,057 million on tickets and travel expenses . The figure represents almost 35% more than last year in real terms, according to the analysis carried out by Infobae . The amount arises from comparing the budget execution of the Upper House published on the Senate Transparency site, with the funds allocated to that concept in the same period of 2023, considering the accumulated inflation.
Of that amount disbursed between January and June 30, $1.956 million correspond to tickets used by the 72 senators and almost $102 million to travel expenses , according to the numbers provided by the Administrative Secretariat of the Senate, in charge of María Laura Izzo , in response to a query by this media outlet.
The number of airline tickets used by senators in the first half of the year was 2,206 , 33% more than in the same period last year , when it was 1,659. This is according to information published monthly on the Chamber's website.
These 2,206 sections - each one is a one-way or return ticket - do not include the trips of the president of the body, Victoria Villarruel, which do not appear in the PDFs posted in the Transparency section of the Senate website. According to information provided in her office, “only the one for senators is published.” They specified, however, that she has the same number of tickets available as the senators (10 in her name that are non-transferable and 32 unnamed), although they warned that “when she travels to the provinces, in general, she does so at the invitation of the governors.”
Those close to her clarified that the Vice President of the Nation does not receive travel expenses for accommodation and meals. “If she had to request them, it would be up to the Presidency (in reference to the National Executive Branch) but she never processed them. Only the people who travel with her receive travel expenses.” To Infobae , in line with what the Casa Rosada rhetoric proclaims, they insisted that the head of the Senate “tries to save on everything she can.”
The 2,206 sections do not include the tickets available to the provisional president of the body, Bartolomé Abdala (La Libertad Avanza); nor those available to the two vice-presidencies, currently held by Carolina Losada (UCR) and Alejandra Vigo (Unidad Federal Block). Also available - like the senators - are the Administrative Secretary, Izzo; the Parliamentary Secretary, Agustín Giustinian ; and the three Administrative, Parliamentary and Operational Coordination Deputy Secretaries of the Senate; as well as the secretaries of parliamentary blocks, but they are not published on the Chamber's website.
How many tickets do senators have?
Members of the Senate have 10 air or land sections available in their name , plus another 12 air and 20 unnamed land sections in the national territory that they can assign to whomever they consider : from advisors from their districts to people from their provinces who have an unmet social, health, work, study or sports trip demand. These sections are valid for a month and cannot be accumulated.According to the information that is published about the nominated sections, 40% of the 72 senators (29) have an average of two trips per week , to go and return from their provinces on airline tickets that they receive in their name, and that are non-transferable. The rest do not reach that figure. The nominated tickets that they do not use in the month are not cumulative and must be returned to the Chamber. Since July 2019, senators were no longer able to exchange their unused tickets for cash.
The remaining 32 unnamed portions they receive per month can be given out at their discretion, a practice that is repeated in the House of Representatives, as Infobae reported on Sunday. This practice translates into a mix of “social work” of assisting citizens in their provinces who are in need, with political work in their districts that seeks to win loyalties at the time of voting.
The Senate website - although it has more information available online in its Transparency section than the Deputies' website - does not publish the data on the tickets assigned to each senator who are not nominated . "Information on the use of tickets and the exchange of unnamed sections are not obligations of active transparency, in the terms of article 32 of the Law on Access to Public Information," said the Senate presidency.
Members of the Upper House may choose other alternatives to the 32 monthly air or land tickets within the country. One is 10 named air tickets, 12 unnamed air tickets and $12,500 for “mobility” (instead of the 20 unnamed land tickets); another contemplates 10 named air tickets, 20 unnamed land tickets and $25,000 (instead of the 10 unnamed air tickets); and finally, 10 non-transferable air tickets, plus $37,000 for “mobility” instead of the 12 unnamed air tickets and 20 land tickets.
International travel
The $2.057 billion spent by the Senate in the first six months of the year includes $4.3 million for 5 international trips in the form of travel expenses , travel insurance and, in one case, airfare . The figure is significantly lower than last year when, in the same period, there were 22 trips abroad by senators.Three of those trips were by Senator Lucía Crexell , from the Neuquén Community monobloc, who paid for two of the tickets out of her own pocket: one when she went to the meeting of the International Union of Parliamentarians (UIP) Assembly, in Geneva, in her capacity as vice president of one of the working committees, and the other when she attended the International Parliamentarians Network of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in Germany. On both, she received a travel expense of $3.3 million (equivalent in pesos to USD 1,500 for three days), according to information from the Administrative Secretariat of the Senate. On the other trip to Morocco, in February, she was invited by the kingdom of that country to the Parliamentary Conference on South-South Cooperation, replacing the provisional president of the Senate, who was the original guest and gave her the place, as Crexell specified to Infobae , and confirmed by the Administrative Secretariat of the Chamber. He did not charge any travel expenses on that trip because his accommodation and meals were paid for.
Senator Enrique Goerling Lara (PRO) traveled to Brazil for the ordinary session of the Mercosur Parliament, but the Senate did not have to pay for his tickets. He received a travel allowance of $963,000 (USD 1,000 for five days). The Senate paid for only one flight in this first semester: that of Juan Carlos Pagotto , to Paraguay, who attended the Conference “Republican System and Federalism,” at a cost of $414,261. The libertarian senator did not receive travel allowances.
According to the regulations in force since 2008, senators are entitled to USD 300 per day in travel expenses to cover their stay and meals if they travel to the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia or Africa; USD 250 in the case of Brazil, Mexico, Panama or Venezuela, and USD 200 if the destination is Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay or Central American countries. The Senate pays only for three days of travel expenses, "unless otherwise authorized, provided that the request is justified for more than three days," according to the Administrative Secretariat of the body.
