ARGENTINA: New Rules May Block Ministers' Relatives From Government Work

(RTTNews) - Argentina's Minister of Modernization, Andrés Ibarra, said the government is setting rules to block ministers from nominating relatives to state jobs.

"We are watching two levels of consanguinity - this is husbands, fathers, and sons - and it is now being defined specifically to what extent the issue arrives," Ibarra said in statements to local radio stations.

The minister also said that the government decree should be ready in three days and noted that it still does not have a precise number of relatives who will leave their positions in the national administration.

"We are defining the fine print and the scope, the degrees of consanguinity and affinity, and we estimate that there should not be more than 40 cases," he said.

On Monday, Argentina's President Mauricio Macri announced a state reform which includes a 25% reduction in the political positions in the Executive Power, a wage freezing for government officials in 2018, and the prohibition for ministers' relatives to work in political positions.

As the first repercussion to the measures announced by Macri on the exclusion of relatives of ministers in public office, Mariana and Lorena Triaca, sisters of the Minister of Labor who worked in the government, resigned from their posts on Monday.