“Added to that is an oversized administrative structure (which represents more than 50% of the total budget) but fragmented and inefficient, with multiple overlapping purchasing, contracting and management circuits, some even outside the organization's own formal structure, which multiply costs without adding operational capacity,” he added.
“More people, less results. A CNEA that is doing less and less, pays less to its physicists and engineers, and loses time and time again opportunities to provide excellent services to a thriving local and international nuclear market,” Ramos Napoli explained regarding the
The Government of Javier Milei announced profound reforms to reorder the operation of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) and orient it towards a more efficient and less expensive model for Argentines.
The initiative was announced by the Secretary of Nuclear Affairs, Federico Ramos Napoli, who pointed against the historic functioning of the organization and anticipated major changes.
Through a message released on the social network X, the official made a critical diagnosis of the current situation of the CNEA, due to years of mismanagement and mismanagement.
“Today, we see clearly the consequences of decades of poor decisions and loss of direction. For years, the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) —and the nuclear sector in general—was used as a political buffer. The result? An endowment that doubled without the incorporation of a single line of income generation beyond the National Treasury,” he said.
Federico Ramos Naples.
Neither more results nor more productivity
Along these lines, the Government explained that the growth of the organism was not accompanied by concrete results or by an improvement in its
productivity.
According to Ramos Napoli, “projects to 'provide work' and 'develop capacities' proliferated that required multi-million dollar investments without any clear end date or tangible benefit.” In addition, he stressed that a structure was generated that increased costs without offering
effective solutions.
The official also focused on the administrative burden within the agency. “Increasing fixed costs financed exclusively by the taxpayer accumulated, without the promise of anything concrete returning to society,” he
official diagnosis. Federico Ramos Naples.
Reforms and changes in the CNEA
For these reasons, the Government proposed a paradigm shift in the functioning of the organization. The official warned that “the institutional inertia that rewarded permanent expansion never demanded results. Asking for more budget without changing the structure is asking the Treasury to finance indefinitely a model that doesn't close. That's not defending the nuclear sector, it's perpetuating it in its crisis.”
Faced with this scenario, the Milei administration is pushing for a comprehensive restructuring of the CNEA. “Our path is the opposite. We are working on a comprehensive restructuring of the CNEA to work as it should be: a research and development agency with the capacity to generate its own revenues,” Napoli explained.
The objective, as detailed, is to take advantage of the body's potential to generate genuine resources and strengthen its long-term sustainability. “The capacities that the CNEA has consolidated throughout its history must be translated into services that guarantee their sustainability and feed back the virtuous circle of training, research and development
,” he said.
In addition, he remarked that the problem exceeds the budgetary one: “The problem of the CNEA is not only one of the budget, it is one of the model. An organization that generates its own income is a body that can support its professionals.”
Finally, Ramos Napoli confirmed that work is already under way on implementing these changes together with his team. “Together with Martín Porro, we are working to promote the necessary changes for the Commission to return to being an entity of excellence. Soon there will be news,” he concluded.
In this way, the Government of Milei seeks to reorder one of the country's strategic sectors, with an agenda focused on efficiency, concrete results and economic sustainability, after years of waste and mismanagement.
