Page 245 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS224 Jorge T. et al.
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Economy (in its different denominations) . Within this Ministry, it became an
Undersecretariat under the Economic Policy Secretariat until 2009. Later,
INDEC was subordinated directly to the Minister of Economy. Although the
Institute was under the Ministry of Economy until 2007, there is no evidence
of important interference or relevant pressure from the superior entity to the
Institute.
In its beginnings, and during most of the 1970s, INDEC was mainly focused
on socio-demographic statistics, such as population, employment,
unemployment and poverty. Since the 1980s, the Institute progressively
increased its economic statistics production, a strategic guideline which was
reinforced in the early 1990s when INDEC began to produce both the country’s
national and international accounts. Setting aside professional independence,
the fact that INDEC performs its activities under the Ministry of Treasury has
its advantages and disadvantages in connection with its administrative and
institutional dynamics. Among the advantages, the following may be
mentioned:
1. It enables access to budget resources, in terms of quantity, timeliness
and specific characteristics of requirements, given that the Ministry of
Treasury drafts the National Budget.
2. It allows close interaction between Ministry and INDEC officials,
improving the definition of priorities, the characteristics of statistical
operations and the potential added value for the definition, monitoring
and assessment of economic policy. In this sense, the Ministry of
Treasury is the main interested party in INDEC’s statistical production.
3. It helps establish communication channels to better explain statistical
matters to policymakers within the Ministry.
Thus, the vertical integration between INDEC’s statistical production and
the Ministry of Treasury substantially reduces asymmetries in information
between the entity that produces statistical indicators and its main user within
the National Public Administration. Moreover, being able to access, with the
Ministry’s endorsement, the available financial resources for statistical projects
and operations could increase the Institute’s budgetary efficiency and improve
its resource management.
Therefore, the advantages could be summarised as follows:
 better access to the entity that drafts the budget;
 articulating demands with the main client;

6 This Ministry was named, successively: “Ministry of Economy and Labour” (1966-1971),
“Ministry of Treasury and Finance” (1971-1973), “Ministry of Economy” (1973-1991),
“Ministry of Economy, Public Works and Services” (1991-1999), “Ministry of Economy” (1999-
2002), “Ministry of Economy and Production” (2002-2008), “Ministry of Economy and Public
Finance” (2008-15), “Ministry of Treasury and Public Finance” (2015-16) and since then
“Ministry of Treasury”.
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