The Minister of National Defense, javier garcia, ordered that the Navy stop providing emergency medical coverage to Club Naval.
“It did not correspond. The Navy has already informed the winning company that this coverage was no longer in effect,” García told The Observer.
Earlier in the morning, on the Desayunos Informales program (Channel 12), García had been interrogated by the reasons why the Navy had included the Naval Club among the areas to be covered for the force-hired mobile emergency, according to a public call for bids.
On the show, the minister had said that such coverage could fall into agreements that exist between the Navy and said private club, but added that he would study the case later with more calm.
In the afternoon, ordered to cease service.
Payment for services by the Navy to that club has been subject of controversy in recent months.
In June 2022, Navy Rear Admiral Otto Gossweilerwho is then serving as director of Naval Material, ordered cancel the payments that the Navy made for the electricity, water and gas services of the Naval Club, the Navy NCO Center and the Uruguayan Maritime League.
Gossweiler, who made other complaints about irregular payments on the force, was then penalized repeatedly by the controls and finally asked to be retired.
The decision to stop paying for those services, however, was endorsed by Minister Garcia.
The minister definitively cut the payments after receiving a series of reports confirming that the armed forces They had been paying contracts to private institutions that, on occasions, did not give them any consideration in exchange.
Through a request for access to public information, The Observer accessed the documents on this subject made by the commanders in chief Jorge Wilson (National Navy), Luis Heber de León (Air Force) and Gerardo Fregossi (Army).
The response indicated that the Ministry of National Defense paid in 2021 to three private clubs (the Naval Club, the Navy Sub-Officers Center and the Air Force Club) bills for electricity, water, gas and telephone, an amount that came out of the budget assigned to “supplies” of each of the forces.
In the case of the Naval Club, the response indicated that the Navy does not have an “accurate record” of when he started paying the club’s bills, although he mentioned that “it dates back many years.” “In the case of UTE, payments have been made since at least the 1970s,” the document said.
In 2021, Defense paid $885,865 for OSE invoices; $1,527,770 from joint venture; $352,643 for gas and $36,500 for Antel. The total amount of payments to this club in 2021 amounted to $2,802,778.
Despite the fact that these payments were cut, in December the Navy called for a tender to hire a medical emergency and included the Naval Club among the places where the borrower should provide the service.
