The government raised $1.5 billion for roads and road works, executed just a quarter and placed more than $1 billion in fixed terms and public bonds.

The Argentine government has collected over $1.5 billion through a special fund intended to finance road infrastructure projects, yet less than a quarter of the funds have been spent on such purposes. According to La Nación, which reconstructed the financial flows using accounting records, monthly reports, and public information requests, more than $1 billion remains invested in fixed-term deposits and public securities rather than being used for road works. At the heart of this financial operation is the “Integrated Road System” (SisVial), a subsystem under the fuel tax collection mechanism established by Decree 976/01. The system was designed to channel a portion of the revenue generated from liquid fuels into specific infrastructure projects. The Ministry of Economy oversees its implementation, while Banco Nación acts as the custodian, managing a dedicated account number 330.902/9 where all funds enter and exit. Theoretically, every peso should go toward road construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation. The law mandates that funds collected under SisVial must be used exclusively for road-related activities. This restriction was imposed following pressure from the World Bank to ensure that fuel tax revenues were not diverted to general budget expenses, as had occurred previously with Vialidad Nacional’s administration. An anonymous expert in public financial management who participated in designing the system explained that the goal was to legally bind the money to a specific purpose, making it inaccessible for other uses. Since Javier Milei took office, the rate of underutilization of SisVial funds has reached 73.8%. Only 11.3% of the $360.238 billion collected during 2024 was executed, rising to 39% by the end of 2025, a period marked by intense legislative conflict, and dropping again to 18.5% between January and May 2026, with $83.144 billion of the $450.500 billion collected remaining unused. In total, $1.503.252 billion has been collected, with just $394.406 billion actually spent on road projects. Monthly reports from account 330.902/9 show lower figures for “distribution income”, $247.628 billion in 2024, $502.928 billion in 2025, and $331.277 billion up to May 2026, because not all funds allocated to SisVial entered this bank account. Even so, execution rates remain low, with less than 36.5% of the available funds utilized within the specified timeframe. An economist specializing in public affairs estimated that, based on the cost per kilometer from Vialidad Nacional's tender 14/26, the retained funds could have covered between 20,000 and 25,000 kilometers of national roads, an amount equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the country’s road network. While these numbers are approximate, they underscore the human cost behind the statistics. Despite its unique regulatory framework, which excludes it from the National Public Sector Financial Administration Law, SisVial is subject to oversight by the General Directorate of the Nation (Sigen) and the National Audit Office (AGN). However, La Nación found that neither body has conducted audits of the fund’s execution in recent years. Additionally, external auditors, including the firm González Fischer y Asociados, have not issued any formal objections regarding how the funds are managed. While they did issue an “observation” in 2025 concerning the execution of loan 11744 at the Banco de...