New Argentina economy minister Amado Boudou announced changes yesterday to the controversial state run statistics agency Indec, which had been accused of bolstering official economic figures. The changes are outlined in a presidential decree signed by Cristina de Kirchner Tuesday.
In a late night press conference Boudou announced a number of changes. “”We do not see it as a reform,” he said. “We see it as a strengthening of an organism surrounded in controversy, which must be made to stop,”
He announced that among other changes complete control of the agency would be transferred to the economy ministry.
Indec will me made accountable to a congressional oversight committee, and a panel of academic advisors from at least three universities will be created.
The academic advisors will revise the agency’s data going back to 1999, and Boudou made it clear that the government would accept the consequences of whatever changes emerge.
Indec economist Norberto Itzcovich who has worked for the agency since 1992 has been charged with overseeing the agency’s most important figures.
This appointment has drawn criticism from some sectors. Itzcovich had recently been promoted and was a vocal supporter of Indec’s previous policies. In a letter to a local newspaper dated several days ago, he wrote ““It is unquestionable that when the State decides to have its Technical Institutions work in a correct manner, it is for the benefit of most of the population,” reports the Buenos Aires Herald.
He also has ties to domestic trade secretary Guillermo Moreno, the man who is said to be behind the misleadingly sunny Indec numbers that have drawn so much criticism. Boudou defended Itzcovich against such claims, saying “”categorizing a person that has been working for 17 years at the Indec is prejudice, because he clearly has been working there since before this government.”
The changes come after President de Kirchner lost control of both houses of congress in the 28 June mid-term elections.
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