Argentine prosecutor opens first investigation for corruption in a Milei ministry

A Argentine prosecutor began an investigation into alleged acts of corruption in the Ministry of Human Capital, a key agency that is in charge of social, labor and educational policy. This is the first criminal case opened against a state portfolio under the command of the far-right government Javier Milei.

The federal prosecutor Ramiro Gonzalez ruled to “investigate the different hirings” of personnel made by the Ministry of Human Capital of the Nation and dependent secretariats “in order to establish whether criminally relevant conduct existed,” according to the resolution.

Human Capital, in charge of Sandra Pettovelloan official of President Milei’s closest confidence, has been tainted by the scandalous discovery of thousands of kilos of food destined for impoverished sectors that remained stacked in warehouses of that agency and that were a few weeks away from perishing, in a context increase in poverty after the adjustment policies implemented by the government.

Due to this episode, Pettovello fired the head of the Human Capital Secretariat of Children, Adolescents and Family, Pablo de la Torreand other officials for not having carried out “a permanent control of stock and expiration of merchandise,” according to a statement from that portfolio released last week.

At the same time, the Ministry of Human Capital appeared before the Anti-Corruption Office and the federal justice system to report alleged irregularities in the contracting of a consultancy with the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), an international organization for multilateral cooperation between Ibero-American countries.

The complaint indicates that many of those hired, as consultants, apparently did not comply with the assigned tasks and that they gave part of their salary to de la Torre.

In order to determine whether or not there were irregularities, prosecutor González summoned representatives of Human capital and of OEI starting next week.

Human Capital is the ministry that manages the bigger budget in Milei’s government structure, mostly allocated to social spending for the most vulnerable sectors of the population. The latest official data released in March indicated that poverty reached 41.7% of the inhabitants of Argentina in the second half of 2023.

Private estimates estimate that so far this year, 55% of the 47 million inhabitants are poor.