Law 25.520 defines national intelligence activities as all activities that consist of “obtaining, collecting, systematizing and analyzing specific information on events, threats, risks and conflicts affecting the external and internal security of the Nation”. There may be a secret budget (or “reserved expenditure”) for these tasks, the details of which are known only to the relevant authorities and the bicameral Commission for Supervision of Intelligence and Activities of the National Congress. In addition to the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE), some organizations dependent on the ministries of defense and security also have a budget for expenditures for which there is no public accountability, although in these cases it is much smaller than that of SIDE.
On the first day of this month, the executive branch, through Decree 849/2025, reallocated resources and expanded the allocations of several organizations, including the Air Force General Staff, which increased its reserved expenditure budget by $151 million. The increase is not insignificant: to this day, the expenses reserved for the organization amounted to $15.34 million, which means that the increase is 985% (and can be used up in less than a month what is left this year). As of December 3 (when the increase impacted the open budget), $15.18 million had been executed on this item, according to PERFIL. By December 8, $20 million more had already been earned, meaning more was spent in five days than in the previous eleven months of the current year.
If you compare the information from the last few years (2016 is the first with available data), the increase is more than clear. The Air Force’s reserved expenditure budget was $1.25 million in the first record and almost did not exceed $2 million until it increased to $4.09 million in 2023. In short, between December 2023 and December 2025, this budget increased by 3,970%. And it grew just on the eve of the arrival of a military officer in the ministry to which he belongs: Carlos Andrés Presti, who served as chief of the army general staff, replaced Luis Petri this week. The bonus was also given before the arrival of the fighter jets that the Defense Ministry had purchased from Denmark as part of a “modernization plan” for Argentina’s system.
In total, the portfolio increased its current budget by $123,044 million, according to the breakdown from the Argentine Association for Budget and Public Financial Management (ASAP). “The Financial Aid Institute for the Payment of Military Retirements and Pensions is increasing its borrowings by $59,634 million, primarily for the provision of retirement benefits,” the document states. On the other hand, “the following budgets are increased to cover mainly personnel and operational costs: of the General Staff of the Argentine Air Force by $24,761 million, of the General Staff of the Army by $15,966 million, of the General Staff of the Argentine Navy by $15,398 million,” among others.
The $24 billion increase for the Air Force also includes $8,198 million allocated in December for the Operational Readiness Program, the total of which – with this addition – increased by 2.6%. This program includes expenditures reserved for the stated $151 million, which represents a much higher increase compared to the current appropriation.
PERFIL has consulted ministry sources to understand why this budget change (particularly in reserved expenditure) is due, which cannot wait until 2026. However, PERFIL has not received any response at the time of publication of this notice.
An increase of 32.3% for SIDE. The State Intelligence Secretariat eventually reached $100 billion, causing controversy in 2024. In 2025, after Congress rejected the DNU that approved this amount for reserved expenses, the budget allocated to the office, now headed by Cristian Ezequiel Auguadra, increased from $48 billion to $106 billion, of which $26 billion was added in the last decree. The number is already impacting the data that can be viewed on the budget website. To date, $75 billion has been implemented: $41 billion for personnel and $13 billion for reserved spending.
The expansion increased staff salaries by $19 billion, but the most criticized increases were in payments for “textiles and apparel” ($320 million), “leather and rubber products” ($350 million), “coverings and air chambers” ($350 million), and “maintenance, repair and cleaning” ($900 million).
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