By: Vive Caba Editorial Staff
The «chainsaw» and austerity policy advocated by the national government faces a new obstacle, this time in the Comodoro Py courts. Federico Sturzenegger, one of the architects of the official economic plan, has been criminally denounced for illicit association, defrauding the public administration and negotiations incompatible with the public function. The axis of the scandal: a contract of more than 114 million pesos awarded to the Argentine Association of English Culture (AACI), whose executive director is María Josefina Rouillet, wife of the minister.
The «positive link» that set off the alarms
The complaint, promoted by lawyers from the Reset Republicano group and supported by presentations from opposition legislators such as Juliana Di Tullio, focuses on Provision 21/2026 of the Foreign Ministry. Through this regulation, the AACI was directly contracted to provide English language training to diplomatic personnel for a period of two years.
Although the national government, specifically Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, assures that the integrity protocols were complied with and that the family relationship was declared, the complainants maintain that there was a deliberate omission in the publicity of these acts before the Anti-Corruption Office (OA). The suspicion is clear: Was the Ministry’s power used to financially benefit an entity directly linked to the official’s family unit?
Contradictions in the official discourse
What is particularly critical for public opinion is the asymmetry between the fiscal adjustment discourse and the reported facts. While the Ministry of Deregulation promotes the shrinking of the State and the elimination of privileges, the awarding of million-dollar funds to an entity directed by the minister’s own wife—in a direct contracting process—generates a political noise that is difficult to silence.
For the residents of the City, who face increases in services and transportation, this news deepens the feeling of a «double standard» in the management of public affairs. This is not just a legal technicality about affidavits; It is a question of government ethics in a context where an extraordinary effort is asked of society.
An open judicial and political front
The case, which also targets authorities from the Anti-Corruption Office for alleged cover-up or lack of control, comes at the moment of greatest exposure for Sturzenegger, who is also facing internal questions within the Casa Rosada itself.
Justice must now determine if the control mechanisms were intentionally circumvented or if it is a practice that, although legal according to the ruling party, borders on the limits of what is ethically acceptable for a management that promised to end «caste.» The truth is that, in downtown Buenos Aires, the climate of discontent is no longer only fueled by inflation, but also by the suspicions that fall on those who must set an example from the top of power.
