ARGENTINA: Special Powers for Kirchner Draw Fire

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Nov 10 2004 (IPS) - Although the Argentine economy is recovering from the late 2001 collapse, the government of President Néstor Kirchner is getting Congress to grant it special powers once again for managing the budget in times of emergency – a move that has drawn criticism from opposition legislators and social groups.

The draft budget for 2005 that the lower house of Congress passed last week and sent on to the Senate, which is slated to approve it before the end of the month, contains a controversial clause that grants the head of the cabinet the authority to use discretionary funds.

Opposition lawmakers from the left, centre and right, as well as legislators from the governing Justicialista (Peronist) Party who also voted against the draft budget, pointed out that the constitution gives parliament the authority to set the budget, which is then administered by the executive branch.

They argued that funds should not be approved by Congress and then used for other ends.

Since taking office in May 2003, Kirchner has used the special powers made possible by the constitution on the argument that Argentina continued to face a social and economic emergency since the late 2001 debacle, when protests, looting and rioting toppled the government of Fernando de la Rúa.

But those who are complaining about extending the government’s special powers until 2005 argue that the economy has been getting back on its feet since 2002.

The Kirchner administration’s defenders, however, say that although economic growth has been steady, the serious social and unemployment crisis has not been overcome, and wages have not rallied.

"The special powers are necessary because the crisis has not yet been left behind," cabinet chief Alberto Fernández told the Senate in mid-October, when opposition legislators asked him to explain the administration’s request.

"All we are asking for is the necessary tools" to be able to deal with the continuing problems, the official said at the time.

The Chamber of Deputies approved the 2005 draft budget by 147-81, with one abstention, while the special powers clause passed by 118-96, with 11 abstentions.

Parliamentary Deputy Claudio Lozano, an economist with the Central de Trabajadores Argentinos (CTA) labour federation, one of Argentina’s two main trade unions, told IPS that the government’s argument to gain special powers "is baseless."

In Lozano’s view, the social emergency – soaring poverty and unemployment, and the growth of slum neighbourhoods – could be tackled better by earmarking more funds for social programmes than by providing the government with discretionary funds.

"The signal that the executive branch is sending to the segments of society making demands on the government is that they will have to take to the streets to pressure (the country’s political leaders) to assign the funding that has not been allotted" for social needs through the normal channels, said the lawmaker.

Lozano also said the delegation of power by the legislature "does not strengthen, but instead weakens" the executive branch, "because there is only one pen that signs the decisions, and this increases the president’s permeability to pressure from internal and external" interests.

Civil society organisations also expressed their fear over the delegation of authority, and say the government has already shown a reluctance to adopt measures that would make the administration more transparent.

"We are worried about the increasingly powerful role that the cabinet chief plays in Argentina and about the legislature’s" loss of control if special powers are extended, Laura Alonso, with Poder Ciudadano (Citizen Power), told IPS.

Poder Ciudadano, an independent non-governmental organisation created to promote citizen participation and generate information of public interest, is the Argentine chapter of Transparency International, the Berlin-based global anti-corruption watchdog.

The granting of special powers to the executive branch comes on top of another phenomenon that worries civil society organisations: the large number of so-called "decrees of necessity and urgency" that Kirchner has signed.

So far, the president has issued 75 decrees, which are implemented with the force of law without having to pass through Congress.

The constitution provides for such presidential decrees under "exceptional circumstances" in which it is impossible to follow the ordinary procedures for getting a law enacted.

But the constitution also states that a bicameral parliamentary commission should later ratify the decrees – a requisite that has not been fulfilled since 1994, when the constitutional amendment creating the possibility of presidential decrees was passed.

Alonso said it is true that in nearly all presidential systems, the legislature can grant extraordinary powers to the executive branch. But she noted that in Argentina, such decrees have been used heavily in the past 10 years, and continue to be used "even now, when the economic conditions do not merit emergency measures."

Since 1997, Congress has gradually ceded power to the executive branch, but many of the legislators who voted in favour of that trend in the past say it is no longer justified, because the economic recovery is in full swing and the government is negotiating a restructuring of the foreign debt, which Argentina defaulted on at the height of the economic crisis.

"The granting of powers is a serious issue. It amounts to a blank check from Congress allowing the executive branch to do whatever it wants – and right in 2005, just when there are parliamentary elections and the government hopes to increase the number of deputies and senators that support it," said Alonso.

Parliament "should act as a check on the presidency as stipulated in the constitution, and it isn’t doing so," she complained.

"It would appear that Congress doesn’t care about overseeing the president" at this time, when the governing party has a majority in both houses of Congress, said the activist.

Alonso also pointed out that the ruling party has shelved a bill on access to public information that is about to expire because the Senate has failed to take it up. The Peronists say they plan to amend the bill, which would then be sent back to the Chamber of Deputies.

Since the sunshine law has not yet been enacted, cabinet chief Fernández has been able to drag his heels for a month to avoid handing over information to Poder Ciudadano and other NGOs regarding government spending on official advertising.

Editors, journalists and social activists complain about allegedly arbitrary decisions by the government when it comes to the granting of advertising contracts to media outlets.

According to a study commissioned by Poder Ciudadano, in the first eight months of the year the government, through funds handled by Fernández, increased official advertising 37 percent with respect to the same period in 2003, although government officials claim spending in that area did not rise.

The question of official advertising and the possibility that it has been used to pressure and censor the media was debated by lawmakers as part of the discussions on the budget bill.

Several legislators belonging to the opposition Radical Civic Union (UCR) complained that Fernández was using official advertising contracts to exercise control over the media’s agenda.

Recently, economic columnist Julio Nudler complained that the daily newspaper Página 12, where he works, refused to publish an article he had written on cases involving corruption in previous governments, in which Fernández was implicated.