The Uruguayan Government has decided to investigate 12 public organizations due to alleged misuse of public funds. The authorities carried out 12 audits during the 2018-19 period, which included the National Directorate of Lotteries and Quinielas, the local gambling regulator.

Minister of Economy and Finance Azucena Arbeleche and Internal Auditor of the Nation Pablo Morelli held a conference this week to report the results of the audits. Arbeleche revealed that, based on the information they received, they decided to initiate investigation processes against them.

The Minister said that they found “negligence in the use of public money and mismanagement of funds that belong to all Uruguayans.” In addition, she assured that they detected that these entities didn’t follow “rules of good administration.”

“We’ve found that many actions deviated from current regulations or that there was no regulation that would allow them. We also found weak control systems that would allow inefficiency around the use of resources”, she said.

The National  Directorate of Lotteries and Quinielas will be investigated for the actions carried out in the 2018-2019 period and, in the event of negative results, the Executive branch will advance with legal actions.

“[The Executive] will carry out these administrative investigations in each of the public entities and, in case they find something, it will share the information with the Justice,” said Arbeleche.

The Government will also investigate the National Institute of Cooperativism, National Housing Directorate, National Resource Fund, National Research and Innovation Agency, Uruguay XXI, Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis, Uruguayan Center for Molecular Imaging, Centralized Acquisitions Unit, General Farm Directorate, General Directorate of the Secretariat – Office of Victims of State Terrorism and National Directorate of Migration.