Secretariat of Public Works (Argentina)

The Secretariat of Public Works (Spanish: Secretaría de Obras Públicas, formerly Ministry of Public Works) of Argentina is a secretariat and former ministry of the national executive power that oversaw and advised on the elaboration and maintenance of roadways, urban and hydraulic infrastructure and other types of public works.

Secretariat of Public Works

Secretaría de Obras Públicas
Palacio de Hacienda, headquarters
Secretariat overview
Formed	1898; 126 years ago (1898)
Superseding Secretariat	Ministry of Economy
Jurisdiction	Government of Argentina
Headquarters	Palacio de Hacienda, Buenos Aires
Secretariat executive	Luis Giovine, Secretary
Child agencies	Vialidad Nacional
Website	argentina.gob.ar/obras-publicas

From 2003 to 2015 it was known as the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services; it was reorganized as a secretariat of the Interior Ministry during the 2015–2019 presidency of Mauricio Macri, and reinstated as a ministry with its original name in 2019 under President Alberto Fernández.

The ministry was dissolved following a presidential decree from President Javier Milei, and turned into a secretariat,^[1] controlled by the Ministry of Economy.

Attributions

As established by the ruling Ley de Ministerios ("Ministries Law"), adopted in December 2019, the Ministry of Public Works was reinstated (from having previously been part of the Interior Ministry's portfolio) due to the "importance of counting with a centralized organ to co-ordinate the national government's policy on public works and hydraulic infrastructure.^[2]

The Ministry's responsibilities and attributions are outlined in Article 21 of the current law, which states that, among others, it is within the ministry's competence overseeing the design and execution of plans and programs pertaining to public works and infrastructure on an international, national, regional, provincial and municipal level; co-ordinating these policies alongside the provincial governments and the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, intervening in the construction and fiscalization of transport (roads, airports and sea and river ports) and hydraulic infrastructure; and co-ordinating and executing the necessary public works to ensure civil protection of Argentina's inhabitants, as well as creating and upkeeping policies and regulations on public services within the competent areas, among others.^[2]

Structure and dependencies

As of 2019 the Ministry of Public Works is organized into the following centralized dependencies:^[3]

• Secretariat of Administrative Management (Secretaría de Gestión Administrativa)
• Secretariat of Public Works (Secretaría de Obras Públicas)
  • Undersecretariat of Planning and Territorial Co-ordination for Public Works (Subsecretaría de Planificación y Coordinación Territorial de la Obra Pública)
  • Undersecretariat of Public Works Execution (Subsecretaría de Ejecución de Obra Pública)
• Secretariat of Hydraulic Infrastructure and Policy (Secretaría de Infraestructura y Política Hídrica)
  • Undersecretariat of Hydraulic Works (Subsecretaría de Obras Hidráulicas)
  • Undersecretariat of Operational Management for Hydraulic Projects (Subsecretaría de Gestión Operativa de Proyectos Hídricos)

Additionally, a number of decentralized dependencies also report to the Ministry of Public Works, including the National Directorate of Roads (DNV), the National Hydraulic Works and Sanitation Authority (ENOHSA), the National Water Institute (INA), the National Institute of Seismic Prevention (INPRES), the National Regulatory Dam Safety Authority (ORSEP).^[4] Several state-owned enterprises are also overseen by the Ministry of Public Works, such as AySA and ACUMAR, the Matanza–Riachuelo River Basin Authority.^[5][6]

Headquarters

The Secretariat is headquartered in the Palacio de Hacienda ("Palace of the Treasury"), located in the Monserrat barrio of Buenos Aires, which has historically housed the Ministry of Economy (formerly known as the Ministry of the Treasury) as well as other ministerial portfolios such as transport and production.^[7] The building was built in two stages from 1937 to 1950 and stands on Hipólito Yrigoyen street, across from the emblematic Plaza de Mayo square and the Casa Rosada, seat of the Presidency.^[8]

From 1936 to 1991 the Ministry of Public Works was housed in the iconic Ministry of Public Works Building (Edificio del Ministerio de Obras Públicas), located on 9 de Julio Avenue in downtown Buenos Aires, which is famous for its large steel image of Eva Perón. Nowadays the building houses the Health Ministry, but it is still sometimes known by its former name.^[9]

List of ministers and secretaries

No.	Minister	Party		Term	President
Ministry of Public Works (1898–1958)
1	Emilio Civit		National Autonomist Party	12 October 1898 – 1904		Julio Argentino Roca
2	Wenceslao Escalante		National Autonomist Party	1904 – 12 October 1904
3	Adolfo Orma		National Autonomist Party	12 October 1904 – 12 March 1906		Manuel Quintana
4	Miguel Tedín		Independent	14 March 1906 – 12 July 1907		José Figueroa Alcorta
5	Carlos Maschwitz		Independent	12 July 1907 – 4 November 1907
6	Ezequiel Ramos Mexía		National Autonomist Party	4 November 1907 – 16 July 1913
						Roque Sáenz Peña
7	Carlos Meyer Pellegrini		Independent	21 July 1913 – 16 February 1914
8	Manuel Moyano		Independent	16 February 1914 – 12 October 1916
						Victorino de la Plaza
9	Pablo Torello		Radical Civic Union	12 October 1916 – 12 October 1922		Hipólito Yrigoyen
10	Eufrasio Loza		Radical Civic Union	12 October 1922 – 13 January 1925		Marcelo T. de Alvear
11	Roberto M. Ortiz		Radical Civic Union	13 January 1925 – 12 October 1928
12	José Benjamín Ábalos		Radical Civic Union	12 October 1928 – 6 September 1930		Hipólito Yrigoyen
13	Octavio Sergio Pico		Radical Civic Union	6 de septiembre de 1930 – 16 de abril de 1931		José Félix Uriburu
14	Pablo Calatayud		Radical Civic Union	17 April 1931 – 20 February 1932
15	Manuel Ramón Alvarado		National Democratic Party	20 February 1932 – 1936		Agustín Pedro Justo
16	Eleazar Videla		Independent (Military)	1936 – 20 February 1938
17	Manuel Ramón Alvarado		National Democratic Party	20 February 1938 – 8 March 1940		Roberto M. Ortiz
18	Luis Alberto Barberis		National Democratic Party	8 March 1940 – 2 September 1940
19	Salvador Oría		Radical Civic Union	2 September 1940 – 4 June 1943		Roberto M. Ortiz
						Ramón Castillo
20	Ismael Galíndez		Independent (Military)	7 June 1943 – 14 October 1943		Pedro Pablo Ramírez
21	Ricardo A. Vago		Independent (Military)	14 October 1943 – 24 February 1944
22	Juan Pistarini		Independent (Military)	24 February 1944 – 4 June 1952		Pedro Pablo Ramírez
						Edelmiro Julián Farrell
			Peronist Party			Juan Domingo Perón
23	Roberto M. Dupeyron		Peronist Party	4 June 1952 – 21 September 1955
24	José Blas Paladino		Independent	23 September 1955 – 13 November 1955		Eduardo Lonardi
25	Pedro Mendiondo		Independent	13 November 1955 – 1 May 1958		Pedro Aramburu
Ministry of Public Works and Services (1958–1973)
26	Justo Policarpo Villar		Radical Civic Union	18 June 1958 – 25 June 1959		Arturo Frondizi
27	Alberto Costantini		Independent	25 June 1959 – 28 April 1961
28	Arturo Acevedo		Independent	28 April 1961 – 15 January 1962
29	José Mazar Barnett		Radical Civic Union	15 January 1962 – 25 March 1962
30	Arturo Acevedo		Independent	25 March 1962 – 30 April 1962
						José María Guido
31	Julio César Crivelli		Independent	30 April 1962 – 12 December 1962
32	Horacio Jorge Zubiri		Radical Civic Union	12 December 1962 – 12 October 1963
33	Miguel Ferrando		Radical Civic Union	12 October 1963 – 28 June 1966		Arturo Illia
34	Luis María Gotelli		Independent	28 June 1966 – 8 June 1970		Juan Carlos Onganía
35	Aldo Ferrer		Radical Civic Union	8 June 1970 – 26 October 1970		Roberto Levingston
36	Oscar Colombo		Independent	26 October 1970 – 8 June 1971
						Alejandro Lanusse
37	Pedro A. Gordillo		Independent	8 June 1971 – 25 May 1973
Ministry of Planning (1976–1978)
38	Ramón Genaro Díaz Bessone		Independent (Military)	25 October 1976 – 30 December 1977		Jorge Rafael Videla
39	Carlos E. Laidlaw		Independent (Military)	30 December 1977 – 30 October 1978
Ministry of Public Works and Services (1981–1991)
40	Diego Urricarriet		Independent (Military)	29 March 1981 – 12 December 1981		Roberto Viola
41	Sergio Martini		Independent	22 December 1981 – 1 July 1982		Leopoldo Galtieri
42	Conrado Bauer		Independent	2 July 1982 – 10 December 1983		Reynaldo Bignone
43	Roque Carranza		Radical Civic Union	10 December 1983 – 27 May 1985		Raúl Alfonsín
44	Roberto Tomasini		Radical Civic Union	27 May 1985 – 3 July 1986
45	Pedro Trucco		Radical Civic Union	3 July 1986 – 16 September 1987
46	Rodolfo Terragno		Radical Civic Union	16 September 1987 – 26 May 1989
47	Roberto Pedro Echarte		Radical Civic Union	26 May 1989 – 8 July 1989
48	Roberto José Dromi		UCEDE	8 July 1989 – 4 January 1991		Carlos Menem
Ministry of Economy, Public Works and Services (1991–1999)
49	Domingo Cavallo		Justicialist Party	1 March 1991 – 6 August 1996		Carlos Menem
50	Roque Fernández		Justicialist Party	6 August 1996 – 10 December 1999
Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing (1999–2001)
51	Nicolás Gallo		Radical Civic Union	10 December 1999 – 5 October 2000		Fernando de la Rúa
52	José Luis Machinea		Radical Civic Union	5 October 2000 – 5 March 2001
53	Ricardo López Murphy		Radical Civic Union	5 March 2001 – 20 March 2001
54	Carlos Bastos		Independent	20 March 2001 – 21 December 2001
Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services (2003–2015)
55	Julio de Vido		Justicialist Party	25 May 2003 – 10 December 2015		Néstor Kirchner
						Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Ministry of the Interior, Public Works and Housing (2015–2019)
56	Rogelio Frigerio		Republican Proposal	10 December 2015 – 10 December 2019		Mauricio Macri
Ministry of Public Works (2019–2023)
57	Gabriel Katopodis		Justicialist Party	10 December 2019 – 10 December 2023		Alberto Fernández
Secretary of Public Works (2023–)
59	Luis Giovine		Independent	10 December 2023 – present		Javier Milei

References

1. Qué ministerios ELIMINÓ Javier MILEI tras su ASUNCIÓN on Cronista.com, 10 Dec 2023
2. "Decreto 7/2019". Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina (in Spanish). 10 December 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
3. "Administración Pública Nacional" (PDF). Jefatura de Gabinete de Ministros (in Spanish). 29 April 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
4. "Ministerio de Obras Públicas". argentina.gob.ar/obras-publicas (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2020.
5. "AySA: Galmarini y Katopodis recorrieron planta potabilizadora". Ámbito (in Spanish). 18 December 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
6. "Acumar. El Gobierno incorporó a un exfuncionario echado durante el kirchnerismo". La Nación (in Spanish). 13 January 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
7. "El Palacio de Hacienda fue declarado Monumento Histórico". nueva-ciudad.com.ar (in Spanish). 28 December 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
8. Mejía, Virginia (28 December 2018). "Monumento histórico: el Palacio de Hacienda, mucho más que una sede ministerial". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 May 2020.
9. Igal, Daniel (20 October 2016). "La historia del edificio de Obras Públicas, un gigante que cumple 80 años". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 May 2020.

External links

• Official website