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Politics Promote Work: the Government suspended payments to more than 22 thousand beneficiaries for trips abroad - Infobae

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Promote Work: the Government suspended payments to more than 22 thousand beneficiaries for trips abroad - Infobae


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Source:


February 23, 2024

It will mean a cut of 1,755,078,000 pesos per month. Prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan had denounced that 160 thousand people crossed the border while receiving the benefit irregularly. The program is intended for people of “social and economic vulnerability.”

By Andres Klipphan

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The Government confirmed the cancellation of more than 22 thousand Boost Work plans

The Ministry of Human Capital, headed by Sandra Pettovello , suspended payment of the Empower Work program to 22,501 beneficiaries who traveled abroad. It will be for three months, a period in which they must register again, justify their situation of “social and economic vulnerability” and explain how they traveled to Europe by plane or on yachts, among other means, while they received the social plan from the State. The measure was published in the Official Gazette through “Resolution 82/2024.”

The names and identity documents appear in an annex - which is not made public - and the General Directorate of Legal Affairs of the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and Family of the Ministry of Human Capital is ordered, “to notify this measure to the Fiscal Unit for the Investigation of Crimes Related to Social Security (UFISeS) (led by Guillermo Marijuan ) and to the National Criminal and Federal Correctional Prosecutor's Office Number 8 of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires", to investigate the alleged crimes of “defrauding the public administration” and “failure to fulfill the duties of a public official” against those responsible for the program for not controlling. That is to say, until now the criminal complaint has not been filed.

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Minister Sandra Pettovello suspended the payment to 22,501 beneficiaries of Empower Work who traveled abroad

According to official documentation accessed by this media, at least 85 people traveled outside the region. 14,695 beneficiaries traveled abroad “for a period greater than 30 days.” And 2,939 did so by plane or cruise. Another 4,782 not only vacationed on paradisiacal beaches or cities like London, Paris, Holland or Rome, but in the cross-relation of data with bases such as ANSES and AFIP, among others, they have cars less than five years old, or employment formal, among other incompatibilities.

The 22,501 to whom the so-called “Complementary Social Wage” was suspended would not meet the criteria imposed to collect 50% of the Minimum Living and Mobile Wage for 20 hours per week in a Management Unit, such as cooperatives that depend on social movements, municipalities, governorates and other organizations, and which is to “improve the income of people who are in a situation of high social and economic vulnerability , the purpose of which is to contribute to the satisfaction of the basic needs of the beneficiaries and their families.”


The resolution published in the Official Gazette is signed by Pablo María de la Torre , the secretary of Children, Adolescents and Family, continuator of the Ministry of Social Development. There, it mentions that - as Infobae exclusively published - “on October 25, 2023, the Fiscal Unit for the Investigation of Crimes related to Social Security (UFISeS) filed a complaint against the officials responsible for granting and controlling the Program Potenciar Trabajo and requested the suspension or cancellation of ( 160,000 ) social plans of beneficiaries who registered trips abroad during the period of validity of their benefit, giving rise to case No. CFP 3749/2023 titled “NN regarding abuse of authority and violation of the duties of a public official.”

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Prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan denounced that some 160 thousand beneficiaries of the Empower Work program traveled abroad Photo NA: MARIANO SANCHEZ
During the four years of Alberto Fernández's government, his Ministers of Social Development were Daniel Arroyo, Juan Zavaleta and Victoria Tolosa Paz. In that period, Emilio Pérsico, leader of the Evita Movement, was directly responsible for Potenciar Trabajo from the Secretariat of Economic Development, where he was in charge of registrations, cancellations and control of the most important program in the portfolio together with the Alimentar Program. .

Resolution 82/2024 highlights: “In accordance with the provisions of Point 7.4 of the guidelines approved by Resolution 2021-1868 of the Ministry of Social Development, starting from the first month and during the second month of suspension, the owner may file a claim. supported by corresponding documentation, which will be evaluated in a timely manner by the application authority, taking into account that the volume of migratory movements of each beneficiary is not consistent with the state of high social and economic vulnerability that constitutes the guiding principle of the aforementioned Enhance Program Work completed within a period of three months from the suspension, if there is no claim, the dismissal from the Program will be resolved.



The decision of the Ministry of Human Capital fully complies with the request made by prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, suspending the benefit, requesting the re-registration of the questioned persons and, if not doing so, or not proving the situation of vulnerability, deregistering .

In his preliminary investigation, the prosecutor reported that 159,919 holders of the Empower Work reflected a total of 812,906 migratory movements.

Of these, 817 people did so on cruise ships, 29,076 by plane, 83,974 on boats, 199,977 on buses, 349,835 privately by car, and the remaining 149,227 were not specified.

Of the movements by plane, 20,832 were through the Ezeiza International Airport, 6,595 through the Jorge Newbery Airport and the remaining 1,649 from other national airports. The airlines were also detailed.

Pettovello had requested from the court the list of incompatibilities for trips abroad reported by Marijuan and carried out his own investigation by cross-checking the data.

Unobjectionable sources from the Casa Rosada had assured Infobae last January that "according to preliminary data, the preliminary investigation of Marijuan was confirmed", but they specified that the figure "will be lower than the almost 160,000 detected by justice."

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Emilio Pérsico and Victoria Tolosa Paz were denounced by prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan for not controlling incompatibilities in the Potenciar Trabajo
The reason? They understood that there are many cases that correspond to “people in a border situation”, that is, beneficiaries who crossed through border crossings such as La Quiaca (Jujuy), Aguas Blancas (Salta) or Professor Salvador Mazza (Salta) to the Bolivian cities of Villazón , Bermejo or Yacuiba, because they live in those Argentine provinces, but have relatives, and even children, in the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

In these cases, the empire that Pettovello would take would be not to discharge these beneficiaries because they would meet the reasons of vulnerability to collect the Empower Work and when they crossed to the neighboring country they would have stayed in their relatives' homes.

At this point, another possible irregularity arises that will also be investigated: how did these beneficiaries, who spent several weeks abroad, complete the twenty hours of work per week that they had to carry out in a Management Unit that depends on municipalities, provinces, or social movement cooperatives. This will be a second investigation in which it should be established whether the absences were justified or someone, irregularly, did not warn about this situation.

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The 22,501 beneficiaries whose benefits were suspended are part of the people identified by the head of the Fiscal Unit for the Investigation of Crimes Related to Social Security
The 22,501 beneficiaries whose benefits were suspended are part of the people identified by the head of the Fiscal Unit for the Investigation of Crimes Related to Social Security. The cut for the State will be 1,755,078,000 pesos per month. A small fortune in times when “there is no money.”

“It is possible to infer that this assistance plan is not compatible and consequently cannot be received by those individuals who are in economic conditions to travel outside the country,” prosecutor Marijuan had written in his resolution. And he added: "In that sense, it is understood that those who traveled, at least recurrently and through expensive means of transportation such as airplanes and cruise ships, would not require any state containment."


Marijuan also denounced the authorities of the Ministry of Social Development, then in charge of Tolosa Paz, current representative of the Nation for the province of Buenos Aires, and Emilio Pérsico for “having systematically omitted to carry out the controls that correspond to them, causing thousands of "People continued to receive a benefit intended for the most needy while they traveled abroad, a circumstance clearly incompatible with the requirement of high economic vulnerability demanded by the aforementioned Program."
 
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