Con la tuya, contribuyente · Investigations
Where your money went
Open-data investigations into Uruguayan state spending. Each starts from a number in the state procurement system, is verified against the official source, and ends with something anyone can re-check. No bias, with links.
State Casinos
The Directorate of Casinos (Ministry of Economy) runs the state gambling monopoly: four casinos and ~30 halls. It is profitable — USD 65 M in 2024 — which is exactly why its spending deserves oversight. These investigations follow its contracting rubro by rubro.
The full investigation
State Casinos: all the spending
11,630 contracts since 2002. What it buys, from whom, and how: mostly direct contracting, with public tender the rarity. The full map of the agency.
Art. 79764 · deep-dive
Courtesy consumption
Nearly 59 million pesos of food and drink comped to gamblers, awarded as “exclusive supplier”… to 22 different suppliers. One bills 4× the rest, unchanged for years.
Departmental governments
Departmental governments handle a huge share of public spending and report unevenly. These investigations look at where their money goes, starting with the biggest: Montevideo, in its worst deficit in a decade.
Departmental governments
Montevideo in the red: the discretionary spend
In 2024 the city posted its biggest deficit in ten years (USD 82.6 M) and kept paying for advertising, shows, catering and merchandising. The discretionary spend, contract by contract.
Intendencia de Montevideo
TV Ciudad: what the municipal channel costs
The city’s TV channel costs between USD 8 and 10 million a year, yet barely shows up in procurement: it’s budget-funded. What does get recorded, plus the budget, the advertising, the NBA deal and the cuts.
Flagged companies
We start from companies flagged by the press and the courts for corruption or irregularities with the State, and cross them against the data to see whether the flag leaves a trace in the open records. Some appear in full; the biggest barely show up.
The catalog
Does the data confirm it?
Over 25 companies flagged for corruption with the State, cross-checked one by one against State procurement. Which are verifiable in the data, which fall outside its scope and why. Each case with its legal status and its source.
Health · ASSE
ITHG: 5 records for US$20 million
A “maritime supplier” concentrated 96% of ASSE’s transfers by direct purchase. The data shows $33 M; the audit and the Tribunal de Cuentas, over $2,000 M. The invisibility of direct spending, measured.
Defense · Armed forces
Saturno: the barracks’ meat
283 contracts for $1,140 M with INDA and all three forces. In the Navy, a 57-tonne shortfall of pork ended up with the Economic Crimes Prosecutor.
Series · Refreshed every Monday
Spending on gender and diversity policy
The feed does not label the subject: it is rebuilt from each contract text. Three things surface: the measurable spend is small, almost all of it is victim support, and 8 in 10 contracts carry no amount.
Series · SICE catalogue
What the State buys when it buys words
Across 84,011 catalogue articles there is no code for a curriculum or a school textbook: the State cannot buy an idea. It does buy the vehicle — advertising, printing, courses, books — for 11,000 million.
The country in numbers
The one series that does not start at a contract. It starts at a dinner-table argument — "we keep getting worse" — and answers it with official series instead of an opinion, including the ones that prove the pessimism right.
How each one is done
Open data
Starts at the source
Everything comes from state procurement (OCDS, catalogodatos.gub.uy), the same base that powers the site. No numbers without an origin.
Verification
Checked by hand
The procurement method, amount and supplier are confirmed by opening each contract official record. Every strong claim has its link.
No verdict
Flags, does not accuse
Facts are kept apart from open questions. A pattern is not a crime: it points to where to request the file, and includes the agency response.
Next lines
Upstream
The bar concessions
The “exclusivity” defense rests on each hall having a bar concessionaire. The missing question: how, and with what competition, was each concession awarded?
More agencies
The rest of the State
The same method applied to other agencies: where spending concentrates, who wins without competition, and which patterns repeat.