He doesn’t get a salary, but negotiates millionaire contracts

He does not receive a salary as an employee of the public television, but he goes to work almost every day. He is Rosario Lufrano’s trusted person and shares an office with the sports director. He is an ad honorem advisor and was on the channel this Wednesday, defining how Public TV will cover the Copa América.

He also reported last month to the Directory of Radio and Television Argentina (RTA, the company that runs public television and national radio) on the cost characteristics of the $ 175 million contract, for the television rights to 42 games of the South American FIFA World Cup qualifiers, which begin next week.

This is the journalist Carlos asnaghi, who I was going to be vice-president of RTA, as officially announced by the Telam agency, on January 15 of last year. But then that could not come true, as Asnaghi had collected a voluntary retirement in 2018, for more than $ 2 million, which prevented him from working on the channel again until 2028.

Asnaghi was athletic director for almost 12 years on public television, between July 2006 and the end of February 2018, when he billed $ 176,624 per month; and is the CEO of a Uruguayan company, Bolwer Content Production.

Since they could not rehire Asnaghi – unless they did so on an exceptional basis and returned some of the voluntary retirement money – in early 2020, RTA authorities he was appointed ad honorary advisor and they gave him a space to share the office with him Sporting director, officially occupied by Gabriel Valentini.

But in fact, the head of sports management is Asnaghi. Defines how teams are put together for coverage, what time programs are running and interacts with the Ministry of Media and Public Communication in contracts for the Copa America, the World Cup and the Olympic Games.

At the last meeting of the RTA Board of Directors that you accessed Bugle, from April 5, Asnaghi verbally reported on the negotiations for the acquisition of the broadcasting rights for World Cup matches.

There, Asnaghi reported that there was a proposal to outsource 42 football matches for US $ 1,837,500 (plus VAT), which equates to $ 174,562,500 (plus VAT), as stated in Law no. ° 110 on the board of directors, to which he had access. Bugle. These are 14 games played by the national team and 28 games by other football teams.

However, at this meeting of RTA’s board of directors, Asnaghi’s proposal was not approved, with the Supervisory Board saying that “the reasonableness and convenience of the contract price” was not apparent from the record.

According to Asnaghi, the board of directors of the CRJ subsequently approved this contract, because it meant “significant savings” from what the previous administration paid for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. “They paid US $ 380,000 for each Argentina team game and we are paying $ 110,000 US, ”the adviser told Bugle.

Anyway, Asnaghi assured that it only intervenes in “questions of production, not in monetary negotiations, which is carried out by the Secretariat of Media and Public Communication ”, which is in charge of Francisco Meritello.

Sources close to Meritello have confirmed that it is not Asnaghi who is negotiating broadcast rights for the World Cup qualifiers, but the official himself, who then he “informs Asnaghi” of the results of this negotiation.

That is to say that even in the official version, the manager informs Asnaghi, but not the sports director of the channel, Gabriel Valentini, who is the one who should officially take care of these contracts to broadcast the matches of the World Cup, the America’s Cup and the Olympic Games.

The question posed by the critical sectors of the canal, They see him every day in the hallways, the office and the bar of the public television, This is if the dedication Asnaghi puts to work is solely because of his vocation for service, which leads him to go without a salary and be in the chain of negotiating a $ 175 million contract. , among other things, in addition to spending money. from his pocket to go to the chain, devote several hours a day to it and even puts his health at risk, since he is a person at risk, being retired, aged 67.

Asnaghi’s situation comes against the backdrop of a deep crisis that public media is going through, where last week they sacked the tenth official since his eruption. the scandal of the withdrawal of $ 11.4 million in cash bags from the chain, who were supposed to pay – also in cash – to the suppliers of the series Belgrano’s forbidden loves.

“There is nothing mysterious about this. I have been called upon to be a sports content advisor for RTA, for the America’s Cup, the playoffs and the Olympic Games. I was going to participate until August of last year, but everything was postponed. Some people probably see me as the sporting director, based on my experience and because sometimes those next to me can’t explain a contract, but I don’t fulfill that role, “Asnaghi said. Bugle.

And he added: “The Uruguayan company has no activity in the production of content, because I cannot go to Uruguay yet. But when I have finished my advice in RTA I would like to go there, for produce regional content. ”

The relationship between Carlos Asnaghi and Rosario Lufrano

Asnaghi has extensive television experience and a trajectory shared with Lufrano. The two worked together in Telefe Noticias, in the 90s. Then Lufrano appointed him in charge of sport on public television, when she was its general manager, in 2006.

As soon as Alberto Fernández resigned his post as Cristina Kirchner’s chief of staff in 2008, Lufrano also resigned from the management of Public TV, although she continued for several years with a lease of services, despite the fact that she did not have a clear role in the channel.

In May 2016, Lufrano dissociated itself from Public TV, with a “contract termination” by mutual agreement, to which he had access Bugle, when he raised $ 35,000 a month and got a cash payment of $ 1 million, with the legal sponsorship of lawyer Alberto Fernández, today President of the Nation.

In this agreement of Lufrano did not contain any clause that would prevent him from returning to work for Public TV, for which she returned in early 2020 as president of RTA, with a salary that at the end of that year was $ 427,408. While Asnaghi signed a voluntary retirement and early retirement plan in 2018, which prevented him from returning to work there as an employee for ten years.

In Asnaghi’s “labor agreement”, to which he had access Bugle, he would have received $ 1,301,585, in eight equal and consecutive installments, “the last being that of the following month in which the worker reaches the age of 65”, plus a payment of $ 706,497 as a benefit. early retirement and another $ 64,000 in medical benefit.

At the same time, Asnaghi and RTA have committed that “staff who have been disengaged through this program You will not be able to return to the service of the national public administration during the ten (10) years after his release, either as a permanent, temporary or contractual agent ”.

However, Asnaghi returned to work for the channel, but without receiving a salary. A legal solution, which some wonder if it is ethical or moral. Especially when it comes to such an early return and such a responsibility, work for free and participate in contracts for hundreds of millions of pesos.