Caputo anticipates and wins the fight against Sturzenegger to reduce the INTA and INTI.

Luis Caputo will move forward in the coming hours with the centralization of two key agencies, the INTA and the INTI.

It's part of the downsizing program. These organizations were on the list of 40 entities targeted by Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger. But they fall under the purview of the Ministry of Economy, and that's where a dispute between the two ministries began.

With the centralization, Caputo will have greater control of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) with the management of the "cash" and the reduction of administrative functions.

Both entities are autonomous, allowing them to manage their resources independently and have operational autonomy. The decrees and resolutions, which will be announced this week—presumably Tuesday or Wednesday— should transfer INTA's administration to the Production department and convert INTI into a directorate or subdirectorate of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

Three weeks ago, Sturzenegger launched changes to other organizations: he restructured the National Theater Institute, dissolved historical institutes (such as the Juan Domingo Perón Institute), and centralized the National Museum of Fine Arts, Tecnópolis, and the Palacio Libertad within the Ministry of Culture. He also merged the National Archive of Memory and the ESMA museum into the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Economy, Health, and Transportation were next on his agenda .

In public, the "colossus" and the "rockstar" minister—as Javier Milei dubbed them—praised each other last week after learning that May's inflation rate was 1.5%, the lowest in five years. Under the table, as Clarín reported, the "redesign" of the INTA and INTI is causing friction. But the ministries are toning it down or denying it. " There's no argument; Caputo is aware of the changes, but there could be a tug-of-war between middle-level officials ," according to sources from the Ministry of Economy.

In Deregulation, they see decentralized agencies duplicating the "back office" (accounting, payroll, purchasing), while a decentralized entity maintains its functional independence but relies on the centralized back office. The idea is for this "hellish bureaucracy" to be replaced by that of centralized areas , which is generating fears among unions of a new wave of mass layoffs. A new round of contracts expires in July.

In the Ministry of Economy, they acknowledge that the biggest "problem" is INTA , an agency with 6,400 employees and 450 offices. Since last year, Caputo's team has gained ground and neutralized the agricultural sector , but without eliminating all the pockets of resistance. In October, the newly appointed head of ARCA, Juan Pazo, appointed Norberto Bronzovich as the institute's president. And at the end of March, with the nod of approval of the Liaison Committee, the national directorates were reduced and coordination units were created, where Pazo deployed his own troops.

The third phase of the government's advance aims to control the governing council , which is made up of three government representatives (the president, the vice president, and the Ministry of Agriculture) and seven from the public-private sector (two faculties and five agricultural entities). The idea is to eliminate one of the rural sector's seats and add another to the government representatives, so that in the event of a tie, the executive branch will decide.

Behind the fight for seats lies a dispute over the management of funds. According to official data, the budget allocation as of May 30th amounted to $244 billion—mostly in salary expenses—but Sturzenegger estimated a few weeks ago that it would be $400 billion. " The government wants to break up everything; they can manage the institute, but without having any decision-making power over the money ," explained an official from the economic team.

INTA is funded with its own resources, defined by Congressional laws, from import duties (0.45%) and the statistical tax (31%). However, the delegated powers granted by Congress to Javier Milei's administration until July 8 allow for the elimination of specific allocations of non-shared taxes and for those funds to go to the Treasury , that is, to the Secretary of Finance, Carlos Guberman.

"Kirchnerism significantly expanded the state with decentralized agencies, such as ANMAT and INTA. If you're a central government agency, you don't charge; you're a dependency. But if you're a decentralized agency, you can charge and raise revenue, hire people, expand ... we're going to return many agencies to central government," Sturzenegger explained in an interview with LN+ two weeks ago.

In the case of INTI, the budget allocation is $85.6 billion, 72% to cover personnel expenses and the remainder for transfers, mostly to the private sector. A large portion of the resources are contributions from the State, and 30% from the sale of services. With 2,377 employees, the institute, chaired by Daniel Afione, a former Toyota executive, had to recruit replacements in July after several officials resigned due to apparent disagreements with the budget cuts.