INAU’s $140 Million Staff Distribution Sparks Backlash as Coalition Moves to Block It

The distribution of 140 million pesos in unused funds among employees of Uruguay’s National Institute for Children and Adolescents, INAU, has opened a political fight over how public money should be used.

The institute’s board acknowledged the payments in Parliament on Tuesday, prompting criticism from the opposition. Senator Javier García said the coalition had presented an additional provision for the government’s budget accountability bill to prevent state-budget agencies from using savings to distribute money among employees at their discretion.

“

We presented an additional provision to prevent savings from being used discretionarily at the end of the year for distributions, and to reinforce allocations for children, disability policies and access to advanced diabetes technologies.

Under the proposed measure, agencies covered by the national budget would need a favorable prior report from the Economy and Finance Ministry before distributing unused funds to staff. García said the money could instead strengthen allocations for children, disability policies and access to advanced diabetes technologies.

“

It is not a practice that has not occurred in every period of government, and it is certainly not a practice exclusive to INAU.

INAU vice president Mauricio Fuentes defended the decision by placing it in a broader administrative context. He said such payments had occurred under all governments and were not unique to INAU or the current board. The institute’s workers’ union, Suinau, rejected what it called the disparaging description of the payments as a “distribution.” It said the money reflected workers’ productivity amid a lack of staff, rather than a budget misreading.

The union said the salary budget line had not increased for more than a decade while staffing shortages worsened each year. It also said the mechanism, generated by delays in hiring personnel, had been negotiated with every INAU board since the 1990s, regardless of political affiliation. Suinau accused coalition lawmakers of raising the issue only after it became politically useful.

“

Calling it a distribution in a disparaging way, when it is payment for workers’ effort and productivity amid a lack of staff, is not a mistake in reading the budget. It is a way of tarnishing people’s work.