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The Senate will spend more than $61 billion on salaries this year: the most expensive offices - Infobae
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El Senado gastará este año más de $61.000 millones en sueldos: los despachos más onerosos
La cifra incluye los salarios de los 72 senadores, que rondan los 2 millones de pesos. La información surge en medio de la polémica por la legisladora Vilma Bedia, que contrató a familiares directos
www.infobae.com
March 26, 2024
The figure includes the salaries of the 72 senators, which are around 2 million pesos. The information arises in the midst of controversy over legislator Vilma Bedia, who hired direct relatives
By Sandra Crucianelli
The Senate of the Nation
The controversy broke out at the end of last month, when it became public knowledge that Congress had authorized granting an increase of almost 30% for employees of both chambers, including legislators. Given the heated debate that raged around the issue, President Javier Milei ordered the disengagement of the salaries of those who occupy seats, of those who perform functions in the different departments of the legislative field.
According to official information, the initial credit for the operation of the Senate during 2024 is $66,121 million. The document reports that personnel expenses, including the 72 senators and workers in offices, blocks and other departments, consume $61,912 million per year , that is, almost 94% of the total budget . For this year, permanent staff plans to spend $55,063 million and temporary staff $6,814 million; To these values are added items for social assistance, consumer goods and various services, among other items, as seen in the graph below.
Until last Friday, according to the Open Budget database , 27% of the total budget had already been executed and when analyzing the amounts disbursed, $17,956 million were paid, corresponding to the item “Formation and sanction of national laws”, which includes personnel expenses, consumer goods, non-personal services, fixed assets and transfers. Added to that value are $23 million for the review of national accounts.
There was no execution for other items such as Monitoring and control of the management of contracting and payment of the Nation's foreign debt; Parliamentary Control over Internal Security Bodies and Activities; Parliamentary control of Social Security Funds; Parliamentary Control of Monitoring of Legislative Procedures; Monitoring and implementation of the new National Criminal Procedure Code; Promotion and monitoring of audiovisual communication or for parliamentary control over the operation of the Intelligence System.
Added to the salary debate this week was the scandal generated by libertarian senator Vilma Bedia, who hired several relatives, including her children, in her office and in the offices of two blockmates , as reported by Infobae last Thursday. , a situation after which President Milei ordered him to cancel said appointments.
Senate staff costs
Each senator upon arrival to office has a total of 7,338 modules to incorporate assistant personnel and advisors. This attribution is based on the validity of decrees 362/03 and 520/95 . Since the value of the module is $1,668.59, that amount translates into $12 million per month, which is at the discretion of the senator for appointment within a range of positions that ranges from the highest category, A1, to the most go down, the A14. Additionally, they have the option of hiring personnel under the service leasing regime for a period of up to one year, whose fees are deducted from the total amount of available modules. To this budget package is added the permanent staff who “inherit”, and who are not consumed by the number of modules they receive.The senators receive salaries of around $2 million net, including per diem but also representation and uprooting expenses for the majority who live in the interior of the country. Profits are taxed, as reported to Infobae from the Parliamentary Secretariat. Vice President Victoria Villarruel, in an interview with TN this week, defended the increase that had been set at the time, since, according to what she said, on the one hand the increase was below inflation and on the other the senators represent the provinces and They have to be paid in a dignified manner. “ For me they have to win well. And they don't earn well . “Cristina Kirchner as a pensioner earns seven times what a senator ,” she said. And she acknowledged that there are salaries within the Upper House that are higher than those of the senators.
As of today, the staff of the Senate of the Nation has 4,682 employees, including those who have permanent, temporary and contracted positions.
Their salaries vary between $1,409,962 (category A1) and $230,266, the lowest. These values are gross and without additions, as seen in the latest salary scale in force since last February . However, the amounts can increase, since seniority, title or other additional items must be considered, so, as Villarruel said, there are workers who receive a salary higher than that of a legislator.
Salary scale, Senate of the Nation, February 2024
As for those hired, which total 214, - all with a start date of activities on January 1 and with contracts for 12 months -, everything depends on the number of modules assigned to them. Each module today has an updated value as of last February of $1,668.59. There are six cases with 845 modules assigned, that is, with gross salaries of $1,409,959, which is the equivalent of the highest category. The monthly expenditure for these employees amounts to $110 million per month and $1,331 million per year. In the Senate's data repository there is no information available regarding the destination of those hired, so it is not known for whom or what office they work for.
In the distribution of salaries, for the calculations of total expenditures, the category of each worker must be considered. There are 611 employees with the highest category, A1, who receive a gross amount without additional amounts of $1,409,962 for each one, which represents $861 million per month.
If the same calculation is applied to the rest of the scales, as seen in the graph above, the Senate spends $3,710 million per month and $48,231 million per year on the salaries of its employees, without considering the salaries of those who occupy a bench, including bonuses.
The most expensive offices
Having a greater number of employees does not necessarily imply greater expense, since everything depends on the distribution of categories within each department. If the gross monthly salaries of the staff of each senator are added, without additionals, considering each category, the monthly amount that the endowment of each legislator implies for the public coffers can be obtained.
When doing the calculations, and taking into account the above, the most expensive office is that of Senator Fernando Rejal, of the National and Popular Front, who has 36 permanent employees and 10 temporary ones. The total cost of these salaries is $35,711,250 per month.
The second on the list is María Inés Pilatti Vergara, also from the National and Popular Front, representative of Chaco, who has 40 employees, of which eight have the highest category. They represent salaries of $35,077,190 per month.
When Infobae carried out the same analysis in 2022, at that time the most expensive office in the Senate had been put together by Carlos “Camau” Espínola, since at that time he had 35 people working in his office, with high categories. The situation is not very different now, since it lists 32 employees who spend a total of $29,764,384 per month.
Gerardo Montenegro, a member of the National and Popular Front bloc, is the senator with the largest number of employees: 44 between temporary and permanent advisors. The same number that he registered in 2022, according to Infobae at that time. He maintains six category A1 contracts, the highest in the Chamber's salary scale, with a floor that according to last month's salary scale is $1,409,962 gross, without counting additional items such as university degrees or seniority. His office spends $28,199,238 monthly on staff salaries.
With a similar value, Pablo Blanco (UCR, Tierra del Fuego), has 28 employees: 15 permanent and 13 temporary, with a monthly salary expense of $28,132,499
Antonio Rodas from Chaco, from the National and Popular Front, listed 35 employees: 12 in permanent positions and 23 in temporary positions, with 7 positions of the highest category. The sum of monthly salaries in his office is $26,640,777
The top 10 offices with the highest salary expenses also include Senator Gabriela Valenzuela (UCR, Corrientes), with 27 employees and a monthly cost of $25,971,668. On her part, Senator Mónica Esther Silva (Juntos Somos Río Negro), with 27 employees and a monthly expenditure of $25,609,582. Silva is the legislator with the most employees with the highest category: 11 of the total.
Also included in this ranking is the libertarian senator (San Luis) Ivanna Arrascaeta, who has 22 employees, 9 of them with category A1, and a total monthly salary of $25,214,127.
Finally, Senator Víctor Zimmermann (UCR, Chaco), has lists of 23 employees who have salaries of $24,958,838 per month.
The offices that spend the least money on employees are those of senators Andrea Cristina (Cambio Federal, Chubut) and Claudia Ledesma Abdala (Frente Nacional y Popular, Santiago del Estero). They have 9 and 4 employees respectively with a total cost in salaries of $5,699,918 in the first case and $3,971,254 in the second.
On average, 19 employees per senator
In total, the 72 senators have 1,370 employees working for their offices - an average of 19 per legislator -, with a monthly salary payment of $1,245 million. For the year, it represents a cost of $16,193 million, including bonuses. To this value we must add 214 employees, with salaries ranging from $1,409,959 to $230,265. Per month, they represent $110 million and after a year, $1,320 million
The rest of the workers perform functions in the blocks and different departments such as the presidency and the provisional presidency, the vice-presidencies, the administrative and parliamentary secretaries and pro-secretaries, the permanent commissions and the bicameral ones.
Grouped by political affiliation, the senators of the National and Popular Front are 17 and have a total of 413 employees. They spend a total of $345 million per month. Those who make up the Citizen Unity bloc, 16 senators, have a total of 295 employees, with a monthly cost of $273 million. Thirdly, the 13 legislators of the UCR have 245 employees in total, which imply a monthly expenditure of $232 million.
The 7 libertarian senators, belonging to the most recently created bloc, have 98 employees, at a cost of $92 million per month.
How was the data processed?
The Infobae Data Unit downloaded the personnel lists from the Senate Web repository , from where the lists can be accessed by name, destination and category. The current salary scale with values as of February of this year and the 2024 budget of the Upper House were also accessed . If you want to view and/or download the spreadsheet with its respective tabs, follow this link .Data processing: Daniela Czibener
Data visualization: Andrés Snitcofsky
Data loading and checking: Desiré Santander
