The Argentine government will eliminate nine state fiduciary funds, President Javier Milei and his spokesman confirmed on Friday. 

The government has not confirmed which of the state’s fiduciary funds could be axed. However, they are used to finance everything from assistance for sex trafficking survivors to housing and school projects, raising concerns the cuts will affect vulnerable populations.

In his daily press conference, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said that the funds on the chopping block amount to US$2 billion, or 0.5% of the country’s GDP. “They lack transparency,” Adorni said. “Nobody knows how that money is used.”

There are 28 fiduciary funds under national jurisdiction. One, established in 2019, finances assistance for sex trafficking victims. Another, created in 2013, funds assistance for those affected by forest fires. The 2012 PRO.CRE.AR program provides financing for individuals and families to access housing, and the 2014 Progresar is a scholarship fund for low-income students aged 18-24.

The Economy Ministry and the President’s Office told the Herald they had no information on what funds would be cut.

After Adorni’s conference, Milei confirmed that some funds would be eliminated. “We are going against all political black boxes,” the president told Radio Rivadavia. 

Milei took office in December promising deep austerity measures, which he called his “chainsaw plan,” and his supporters have adopted the slogan “There’s no money.” After the reforms in his omnibus bill failed to pass Congress, he said he would go all-out against the national fiduciary funds, which he described as pockets of corruption.

A 2023 Congressional Budget Office report found that the proliferation of these funds intensified financial stress on the National Treasury.

“The economic and budgetary importance of this institutional sector merits making the necessary efforts to increase transparency and understanding of the destination of the allocated budgetary resources,” the office said, although it did not recommend closing them.

On Friday, former Science Minister Daniel Filmus posted on social media to express his regret about Milei’s apparent decision to eliminate the Fund for Science and Technology and the Fund for Knowledge Economy. However, the government has not confirmed that those funds would be among those axed.