🎗️Cancer and high-cost care· 2018-2026
The Cancer Commission and the US$16 million in mammographs
Created by law and funded with public money, it buys equipment and keeps the cancer registry. The Health Ministry itself asked it to demonstrate efficacy, efficiency and results.
Figure published by the sources
US$ 16 millones invertidos en mamógrafos y capacitación de recursos humanos, cifra acumulada informada en noviembre de 2018
Bodies involved
Comisión Honoraria de Lucha contra el Cáncer · Ministerio de Salud Pública
What it is
The Honorary Commission for the Fight Against Cancer was created by Law No. 16,097: it receives public funds, buys equipment and trains staff, and reports to the Ministry of Public Health. Beyond its campaigns, it runs the National Cancer Registry —source of the 7th Atlas of Cancer Mortality in Uruguay 2019-2023— and the Oncological Electronic Medical Record. In other words: it is at once a buyer of diagnostic technology and the custodian of the official statistics used to measure the problem.
What is questioned
On 12 November 2018, at the event marking the Commission's 30th anniversary, Presidencia reported that the body had invested 16 million dollars in mammographs and in staff training. Its then president, Álvaro Luongo, said that "thirty years ago there were three or four mammographs" and that after the investment the equipment multiplied across the country. At the same event, Health Minister Jorge Basso stressed that, as public money is involved, the Commission must "make it transparent, demonstrate efficacy, efficiency and results", and mentioned an annual budget of more than 2.5 million dollars for which it must account. None of the sources consulted specifies how many mammographs were bought with those 16 million, from which suppliers, or through what contracting mechanism. The international imPACT assessment presented to the Health Ministry in 2022 added a finding on the quality of that installed base: "Mammography services are not subject to quality assurance processes", and it recommended implementing quality-control programmes for mammography under the supervision of medical physics professionals.
Why it matters to you
Mammographs determine how many women can get, in time, the test that detects breast cancer, and in which department of the country. Knowing what each machine cost, who sold it, where it was installed and under what quality control it operates is the difference between an October campaign and a verifiable policy.
Where it stands
Institutional management agreements were created by article 752 of Law No. 18,719 of 27 December 2010, for bodies receiving subsidies or grants from the National Budget above $20,000,000 pesos. According to the Health Ministry's institutional page, in 2025 the Ministry signed management agreements with six institutions, among them the Honorary Commission for the Fight Against Cancer, and publishes the corresponding document. As of this file's closing date (August 2026), the sources consulted record no public observations about these purchases.
The open-data cross-reference
Open this set in the explorerWhat the state awarded to the bodies and companies named in this file, according to the official Compras Estatales data. It is a cross-reference for scale, not proof of irregularity: it includes contracts nobody questioned.
How this cross-reference was builteverything recorded under the body's buying unit (not only this case) · between 2018 and 2026
Who was paid
Suppliers ranked by amount awarded in the cross-reference. A contract with several suppliers counts in full against each one: this is a ceiling, not a split.
What it bought
Spending by category, from price times quantity of each awarded item, in the contract currency.
Contracts per year
The detail
The largest contracts in the cross-reference, high to low. Tap one for its record and the link to the official purchase.
- VACUNA ANTI INFLUENZADIRECCION GENERAL DE SECRETARIA DEL M.S.P. · 03 ago. 2020$ 22,6 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALCABINSUR SOCIEDAD ANONIMA · 25 ene. 2021$ 9,9 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALCABINSUR SOCIEDAD ANONIMA · 15 may. 2020$ 4 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALROCHE INTERNATIONAL LTD · 29 abr. 2020$ 2,4 M
- KIT PARA DETERMINACION DEL VIRUS SARS-COV-2 POR PCR EN TIEMPO REALCABINSUR SOCIEDAD ANONIMA · 21 oct. 2020$ 2 M
- INSUMOS PARA EQUIPO DE EXTRACCION AUTOMATICO DE ADN Y ARNTRESUL S.A. · 25 jun. 2020$ 971.763
- IMPRESION DE FORMULARIODIRECCION NACIONAL DE IMPRESIONES Y PUBLICACIONES · 07 dic. 2021$ 513.400
- DISEÑO Y REALIZACION DE CAMPAÑA PUBLICITARIAMARRERO GARMENDIA ANDRES ALFREDO · 04 ago. 2020$ 357.650
- BOLSO EN LONA O SIMILARARESCHE BUFFO ALEJO · 25 mar. 2021$ 164.730
- IMPRESION DE FOLLETOSDIRECCION NACIONAL DE IMPRESIONES Y PUBLICACIONES · 02 set. 2020$ 10.372
- PAPEL PARA IMPRESORA Y/O FOTOCOPIADORA 75 G/M2MEDIZA LINARES RAFAEL MIGUEL · 29 mar. 2021$ 6.954
Amounts in pesos, normalised. Records with impossible quantities are excluded from the total. The US$16 million figure is cumulative and is not broken down by year or by machine in the sources; it corresponds to what was reported in 2018, not to annual spending. Part of the Commission's purchasing may be processed outside the general regime and may not appear in the state procurement search.