The president of IOSFA, the social security organization of the Armed Forces, resigned amid a crisis and with a debt of $120 billion.

Amid a serious crisis, with debt reaching 120 billion pesos, the Ministry of Defense announced tonight the resignation of Roberto Fiochi as president of the Armed Forces Social Security Institute (IOSFA), "for personal reasons." The new head of the social security system is accountant Betina Surballe , who had been serving as president of the Institute for Financial Assistance for the Payment of Military Retirements and Pensions (IAF).

The departure of Fiochi, a Mendoza-based accountant trusted by Minister Luis Petri, had been rumored in recent weeks, although Petri denied it last Wednesday in his briefing before the Chamber of Deputies' Defense Committee.

It was at that meeting that Petri admitted the existence of a 120 billion peso debt owed by the social security system to members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, as well as the Gendarmerie and Naval Prefecture, and their families. IOSFA is among the five largest social security systems in the country and has 550,000 members.

"During his tenure at the IAF, Surballe led a successful modernization and reorganization process with concrete results: an 87% growth in the investment portfolio, a 98% increase in personal loans and an 87% increase in mortgage loans, a 26% reduction in labor costs, and a 50% decrease in operating expenses," the official statement said.

"In this new phase, IOSFA will implement key measures to reengineer the social security system so that it can be sustainable in the long term and thus address the problems it has endured since its inception. Currently, in addition to significant cost reductions, external audits will be conducted and the IT system will be modernized to make administrative processes more efficient," the statement added.

Finally, he noted that "we are working with the Ministry of Economy to settle outstanding employer contributions in order to meet supplier payments."

Surballe will thus be the third president of the IOSFA since Javier Milei's administration took office in December 2023 and appointed Luis Petri to the Ministry of Defense. In November 2024, physician Oscar Sagás resigned, when the debt had climbed to 90 billion pesos. He was replaced by Fiochi, who came from the IAF, just as Surballe is now.

The IOSFA situation is critical, with benefits cut in many parts of the country due to nonpayment . The deficit is growing at a rate of $15 billion per month.

In an interview with Clarín two weeks ago, Fiochi revealed that he has 2,000 providers and experiences 90 service interruptions (in benefits) per day, a figure he also downplayed. This is not the case with the red tape, as 92% of the income goes to paying benefits, he pointed out.

"The money that comes here comes from personnel (military and security personnel); there are no additional contributions from the Treasury. There were no additional contributions to the IOSFA. It has always had to rely on its own resources. And one solution would be... an advance on funds to be reimbursed, or a contribution from the Treasury. Furthermore, we are seeing why some forces do not strictly comply with contributions based on gross income," he had stated.

Fiochi then said that costs skyrocketed due to the "realization" of prices following the change in government, with sharp increases in medicines and benefits. However, IOSFA has no other means of obtaining more resources.

Along with plummeting salaries, the situation of the IOSFA (National Institute of Statistics and Census) is at the top of the Armed Forces' concerns. Thus, while it has had other crises, rising healthcare costs (medications, benefits) have generated a critical debt. Among the causes of the deficit are low contributions, coupled with depressed military salaries; the lack of audits; and the lack of adequate "employer" contributions (the same forces, i.e., the national government) to the costs of the administrative structure of the social security system, which employs 2,700 people.