In negotiations against the clock, this Monday all the parties of the coalition meet, and on Tuesday the meeting with the Broad Front, in view of the vote next Wednesday for Accountability
Legislators of the National Party met this Saturday 26 in the Annex of the Legislative Palace, in order to advance in the analysis and discussion of the reallocation of funds for certain sectors, all within the framework of the Rendering of Accounts, which is currently being prepared for start voting on Wednesday 28, in the Senate of the Republic.
The senator of the Por la Patria sector, of the National Party, Jorge Gandini, told Diario La R on Saturday 24 that the legislators of the National Party met with representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), in order to analyze formulas and options, for the reallocation of resources in some sectors, in view of the closure of the current Rendering of Accounts.
Jorge Gandini recognized that “the ground is clearer than it was 72 hours ago”, but that there is still a need to analyze and define what are the concrete alternatives to handle as options to “touch” when reallocating resources. What was defined is that some entities that had been “selected” to modify their budget were discarded, such is the case of the National Colonization Institute (INC), the National Meat Institute (INAC) and the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay ( LATU), entities whose funds and resources will not be altered. In other words, if resources are reallocated to areas such as science and technology, they will not come from those institutions mentioned.
The political leader said that in yesterday’s meeting “I presented some ideas”, which were analyzed together with the rest of the nationalist senators. For their part, other senators also contributed their options. In addition, he expressed that the members of the Ministry of Economy and Finance transferred some ideas and options, which are already under the analysis of the nationalist legislators. Asked about the ideas presented by the MEF, Jorge Gandini preferred to keep the initiatives of the Secretary of State in reserve.
He commented that next Monday the 26th in the morning, the senators of the National Party will meet with the legislators of the other parties of the government coalition, so that each political group presents its proposals and initiatives. For tomorrow, the conversations will continue in the afternoon with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in order to advance further on the subject.
For Tuesday the 27th, a meeting will be held between the legislators of the National Party, Colorado, Cabildo Abierto and Partido Independiente, with the senators of the Broad Front, for the purpose of exchanging information and opinions on what is officialism and opposition, and there to resolve the position to be taken and the steps to follow, since on Wednesday the vote begins in the Budget and Treasury Commission of the Senate.
Regarding figures, Gandini decided not to provide details, not only because everything has not yet been defined within the National Party, but also because the numbers with the other parties of the Coalition and with the Broad Front also need to be analyzed.
One of the central sectors for the reallocation of resources in the current Rendering of Accounts is education, and specifically the University of the Republic, a university for which Gandini expressed days ago that “although it has its resources assigned, it wants more ”, and recalled that if it has 5,000 more students than in the past year, the government and Parliament have to see how to respond to the situation of need that UdelaR presents today.
“Surely there will be an increase in spending”
Regarding how the analysis of the issue has been developing so far, the coordinator of the ruling party, the senator of the National Party, Gustavo Penadés, said this Friday afternoon at a press conference that “surely there will be an increase in spending, not we know what the time is, but we are also working on the reassignment, which is an important part of what we intend to do”.
Penadés recognized that “it will be a rather cumbersome task, because what is needed will be more than the money that is available, and in that sense we try to move forward in that.” In relation to the Solidarity Fund of the University of the Republic, he replied that “we are seeing if this is the right time to eliminate it. There is a legal discussion that is fairly settled by the legal reports in the sense that the Chamber of Senators could eventually take up the issue of elimination, despite the fact that the Chamber of Deputies voted negatively on the article, we have to move forward on that.”
Udelar and Solidarity Fund
Senator Gustavo Penadés said that “the first thing is to try to ensure that the University of the Republic does not lose resources. As we are facing the problem of where and how we replace what the Solidarity Fund would mean, it is in question whether that article can be re-imposed here or whether the criterion reached in the House of Representatives is maintained, that for this year 2022 the Solidarity Fund would not be touched”.
