The Professional Fund, the main source of support for retiring professionals, is in crisis. It seems incredible when you have the support of thousands and thousands of dollars contributed by professionals in at least 30 years of work. But the crisis is established, and within this framework EL ECO spoke with the doctor of Dentistry, Sergio Bedrossian, who is a representative of the group Independent Professions in Defense of the Fund, a movement that began on October 6, 2022, “we were six, and today, we are 1,500 who have joined together”, he said with great emphasis.
Sergio Bedrossian also affirmed that this crisis began many years ago, and the managers on duty who are elected by the professionals themselves in a non-compulsory manner and with two delegates from the Executive Power, either from this government or from the administrations of the Front, are responsible.
The representative of the professionals emphasized that there has been a discretion in the money of the professionals by the directives and managers. “A fact to highlight: When the President of the Republic, as a measure to reduce so much spending in the Fund, proposes a political measure with an impact on the population: Lowering the salaries of managers from 670,000 pesos to 220,000 pesos, this board of directors He suggested to the president that the reduction had been too much and that some exceptionality should be made in the law, which would allow him to compensate him, and they took him to 412,000 pesos in salary. A general manager of the box, who has been in office for more than ten years and has not yet been fired. How can you understand!!!”
The crisis caused
Bedrossian pointed out that in the study they carried out they have confirmed that there is a great responsibility in the management of the different directories of the Professional Fund. “We have found, to call them neatly, administrative and political errors, such as the investment policy that has notoriously harmed the profitability of the Fund. 83 percent of our portfolio is government paper (monetary regulation, etc.), which provide security but do not provide a return that could be achieved with other investments. For example, the Caja Bancaria, which is a benchmark, has only 40 percent with this type of investment”.
Other arrears
In the middle of last year, in June, July, with the well-announced crisis, “it had 6,100 arrears in notifications to debtors. Let me explain: When a professional does not pay the Fund, after 120 days the Fund is obliged to send them a note. Well, there were more than 6,100 arrears, which of course with a Fund in crisis means a lot of money, ”he indicated.
operating cost
“We have an operating cost of 20 million dollars a year for the Fund and the annual deficit of the Professional Fund is 50 million dollars a year and we are sure that an austerity policy has not been applied. We are very far from that. Today a director receives 160 thousand pesos per month for an obligation that does not have a workload of course for this role. We denounce that a director after a period of five years earns 160 thousand dollars”.
I don’t exercise
The Professional Fund has about 170,000 affiliates, of which 90,000 are in declaration of non-exercise, which means that the affiliate declares that he is not working and does not contribute. “We denounce that the boards have not carried out any policy to reverse this situation.”
directories
The boards of the Professional Fund are made up of seven members: Two of them are representatives of the Executive Power, the other five are elected in non-mandatory elections by professionals. Less than ten percent of the affiliates vote. “This crisis is caused and directed at the closure of the Fund itself. Because? Because the Caja’s model worked very well and now it is being affected by disastrous management, totally negative, and they want to associate our model as if it were outdated”, he indicated.
State responsibilities
The representative of the professionals denounced that a majority in the board of directors formed by the delegates of the Executive and the president and vice president of the Fund has been working for a long time, “and we did a study that in 4000 decisions only nine, nine I am saying , where the delegates of the Executive voted and were not a majority”.
“That is why we denounce that the State has responsibility in this crisis of our Fund, because its representatives have had direct interference in this situation. That on the one hand, ”he indicated.
And he recalled that article 67 of the Constitution establishes, “in a crisis like the one we are experiencing, in which the State has the obligation to financially assist the Fund.”
Today the deficit of the Professional Fund is 50 million dollars, and “in addition to the claims that I have already raised, there is the IASS that was created in 2008 as a Social Security Assistance Tax. Our social security is the Fund, and we, like the other retirees, contribute to the IASS, but that means that we have been assisting the BPS for 15 years, having a cast Fund. Our $50 million deficit would drop by 80 percent if we stopped attending BPS. It is 40 million dollars that professional retirees attend the BPS”.
reverse the crisis
For example, with austerity in salaries and no longer attending the BPS with the IASS. “We have gone through all the benches and in none have our arguments been refuted, the burden of justice of our claims. You know that they tell us: ‘It will be difficult for them to receive the IASS’, when we plan for them to attend the BPS, but they never say that it is unfair”.
express law
The so-called Express Law “was little less than imposed by the executive with the complicity of the board of directors. We have members of the board of directors who are active participants in political parties, the law does not prevent this double function, but how can a director guarantee the defense of the member when he is the leader of a political party that may be mandated? For this reason, “the State is responsible for the crisis that the Fund is going through, which the offices recognize us for. Because the Express Law is made to liquidate the Fund, because it is an increase in the contributions of assets and a new tax on liabilities, which is calculated on the nominal, which will affect professional retirees with a seven percent more ” .
The electoral weight
In the end, Sergio Bedrossian indicated that “if the political system does not give us an answer, we will try to give a corporate fight, so that the 170,000 wills that make up the Professional Fund take into account what has happened by the time the national elections arrive. In a country where elections are defined by 20,000 votes, if we don’t have answers, we will try to get affiliates to respond to those who give us answers. And it’s not a threat, but a promise.”
