The excess of non-permanent staff of the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC, for its acronym in Spanish) "could impact directly on their independence and judgment." This was stated by the Audit General’s Office in its latest report that investigates the Institute. They also noted that the Institute "partially fulfills its role as the directorate of national statistics."

The temporary and under-contract employees represent 61% of the human resources of the Institute. That percentage "far exceeds the standards set of 15%". The Auditors found that "positions of high importance for the structure of INDEC are fulfilled with temporary designations."

For example, of the nine national offices of the Institute, "only two were covered regularly, others had many vacancies and the remaining five had momentary coverage." Those offices who still had not appointed personnel are the Price Statistics of Production and Trade and External Sector Statistics.

The Directorates with temporary coverage are the International Accounts, Social Statistics Population, and Living Conditions Statistics, Planning and Statistical Coordination, and Operations Management. Additionally, of the 25 simple Directorates that the Institute has, "four were vacant, two were covered regularly and 19 were staffed only on a seasonal basis".

Returning to the percentages of the staff, the report notes that "the temporary agents must complete tasks on a seasonal basis". However, the auditors found that "of the 251 people who made up the transitional staff, 56% were over 15 years old and another 23% over 20." These numbers are for the AGN, sufficient evidence that the workers "do not perform temporary activities." Among those employed "13% have been working for the Institute for more than five years."

Continuing with the staff, it was noted that within the INDEC "there are no procedures to evaluate the need to incorporate substitutes." In their defense, the Institute acknowledged that "the directorates are the ones to evaluate the requests from the different areas." It’s important to point out that the Institute spends 70% of its budget to Human Resources.

National Statistical System

In parallel to Guillermo Moreno’s departure from the Ministry of Commerce, the Audit Committee approved this report that assesses the organizational and budgetary aspects of the INDEC between 2010 and the first six months of 2011. It mentions that the entity as a dean of the National Statistics had a "partial" fulfillment of their tasks.

The AGN noted that the lists in the National Statistical System (NSS) "are outdated." When reviewing documents they found inconsistencies or incomplete names, therefore, the work on the controls is "insufficient".

The audit states that from the INDEC "no monitoring of the reliability of the data received in health and education areas was made." Regarding both areas, the watchdog based the investigation on previous reports in which "lack of security and quality of information" was identified.
 
Something similar happened with the data provided by the regulatory bodies of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation. On this sector the AGN reported that "there are parameters to avoid quantitative errors but no documentation survey methodologies to verify the same comparison."
 
Regarding the information that supports the Wage Index, which relieves the payroll of the private sector and public sector recorded to establish the monthly variations, the picture is no better and the lack of control over the data is repeated once again.