Paraguay lawmakers delegate 2027 budget committee appointments and approve $1 million donation for public works advice

Paraguay's Chamber of Deputies approved a $1 million donation for public works planning just before a scheduled effort to question the minister responsible for the ministry.

The donation, backed in an extraordinary session, will fund advisory services and plans for a logistics and transport infrastructure project in Itapúa. The money will not build roads or other physical works, but lawmakers raised no objection because it is a grant. The agreement now goes to the executive branch.

Deputies also decided that party leaders should send the names of 25 nominees for the 2027 Bicameral Budget Commission to the chamber's governing board. The commission is due to be chaired this year by Cristina Villalba, the president of the lower house Budget Commission and a member of the Colorado Party's Honor Colorado faction.

The appointment process should have taken place the previous week, but an ordinary session failed for lack of a quorum. Deputies moved quickly this time because Congress is due to receive the executive branch's 2027 national budget proposal at its next ordinary session.

The chamber is scheduled to consider the interpellation request against Public Works Minister Claudia Centurión as the seventh item on its agenda. The majority Cartista faction has already said it wants to reject the request, arguing that Centurión has provided explanations about the Pedrozo accident, in which six people died. Critics have attributed part of the responsibility to the ministry over a traffic light and delays in building an overpass. The issue has received less attention amid a nationwide doctors' strike, the report said.