After the closure of Vialidad Nacional, the government will save USD 87.9 million per year

Javier Milei's government announced this Monday the definitive dissolution of the Dirección Nacional de Vialidad (DNV), as part of a deep State restructuring aimed at reducing public spending, eliminating duplications, and professionalizing the management of road infrastructure in Argentina.

The measure transfers Vialidad's functions to the Ministry of Economy and to a new Agency for the Control of Concessions and Public Transport Services, which will be responsible for planning, executing, and overseeing road concessions.

Milei's government's decision is due to the fact that the DNV had become an oversized, inefficient, and costly agency, with overlapping functions and a structure that no longer met the country's current needs. With this reform, Argentines will save 87.9 million dollars annually.

According to official data, the Dirección Nacional de Vialidad had 5,184 employees, of whom 67% performed administrative tasks and only 33% operational ones. This disproportion in the distribution of human resources contrasted with an increasingly decentralized road scenario: the national network was reduced from 50,000 to 40,000 km, while provincial networks grew to more than 200,000 km.

In addition, many of the core maintenance tasks, such as weed control, signage, or pothole repair, were already outsourced, with better results in private hands.

Milei's government also detected serious structural failures, such as the lack of independent controls, since the DNV acted simultaneously as contractor and auditor of its own contracts. Added to this were underutilized equipment and obsolete internal processes that resulted in unnecessary operating costs and low efficiency.

The reorganization

The restructuring plan provides for a clear redistribution of functions:

• The Ministry of Economy will assume the planning, design, maintenance, and conservation of the non-concessioned national road network.
• The new Agency for the Control of Concessions and Public Transport Services will be responsible for overseeing and controlling road and rail concession contracts.

This reorganization also involves the repeal of Decree-Law No. 505/1958, which governed Vialidad's activity, and a transfer of powers to the Ministry of Economy and the Secretariat of Transport.

The estimated savings amount to 87.9 million dollars annually, thanks to the elimination of inefficient structures, the reassignment of overlapping functions, and the optimization of public resources.