ASSE bought three accelerators without the software to run them

What it is

In 2018 ASSE awarded Tera Ingenieros SRL, the Uruguayan representative of manufacturer Varian, the purchase of three linear accelerators for radiotherapy, according to El Observador. The machines were destined for the National Cancer Institute (INCA), Tacuarembó Hospital and the Pereira Rossell Hospital Centre. On the price, the paper's own reports do not agree: in December 2020 it gave US$3,750,000 "as shown on the state procurement website", and in March 2023 US$3,975,000. At the time the public sector was treating patients with very old machines: the Tacuarembó unit was 23 years old and INCA was using an accelerator leased since 2014 that was 15 years old. On the Pereira Rossell machine, the same 2020 report says in one passage that it was 17 years old and quotes an email from the centre's director, Victoria Lafluf, saying the machine in operation "has 26 years of useful life and shows habitual technical faults".

What is questioned

El Observador reported on 14 December 2020 that the tender had not included the treatment planning system (TPS), the external dosimetry systems or the quality-control programs, without which the accelerators cannot be used on patients; the paper estimated the missing items at around US$500,000. On 14 March 2023 the same outlet reported that the machines still lacked an operating authorisation from the National Radiation Protection Regulatory Authority, that Pereira Rossell had not built the bunker —so the equipment sat in crates for months— and that in Tacuarembó the director requested an inspection over a gas leak, with the warranty already expired. On 12 July 2023 El Observador reported that negotiating preventive maintenance with Tera Ingenieros, the country's sole supplier of that service, took more than four years: the company asked for 12% to 15% a year of the equipment's value —over US$1 million a year— and it closed at around 8.3%, some US$600,000 a year. The president of ASSE, Leonardo Cipriani, described the process: "It was a breech birth, truly cramping". The sources consulted carry ASSE's explanation but include no response from Tera Ingenieros.

Why it matters to you

Between 2018 and 2023, ASSE patients who needed radiotherapy kept being treated with machines two decades old or more while new, already-paid-for units waited. In radiotherapy, time is not neutral: every month of delay is a month of treatment delivered with less precise technology over the healthy tissue surrounding the tumour.

Where it stands