The National Government presented the Statistics Bill

Within the framework of a policy of transparency and statistical independence, the Minister of Treasury of the Argentine Republic, Hernán Lacunza, presented today the new Statistics Bill.

During the presentation, at the building of the Ministry of the Treasury, Mr. Minister, accompanied by the Secretary of Economic Policy, Sebastian Katz, and the director of the Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), said that this work is “in contrast to the previous management, where these characteristics of public statistics had been lost and imperfect substitutes of the private sector had emerged to replace that asset that the State has to provide.”

The Bill that will be sent to Congress for its discussion is aimed at institutionally safeguarding INDEC from any political or sectoral interference, in addition to modernizing procedures and adopting international principles and best practices.

“The Statistics Bill basically has two central objectives: to provide a robust institutional framework for eventual political pressures of the authorities in turn, and, given that we had a fairly old Statistics law, I think 51 years, to adapt it to the best international practices that have evolved a lot in the last five decades, ” the official said.

In this way, INDEC will become an autonomous body, with stability and clear guidelines for the appointment and removal of authorities. The General Director and the Technical Director of the statistical agency shall be appointed from a public tender, and the appointment of the Director General must be agreed by the Senate.

A central aspect of the project is democratization, based on the formation of the National Statistical System Council. It is comprised by six members of the National Executive Power, one from the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) and eight from the scientific, statistical and university community.

Congress will participate in the operation of the statistics, through a Bicameral Commission. Statistical confidentiality will be strengthened, there will be access to administrative records for statistical purposes and the statistics user right will be incorporated.

In this way, the fundamental principles of the official statistics of the United Nations (UN) will be adopted.