📻Security and prisons· 2024-2026
Police radio: US$ 1.25 million by direct purchase
Interior expanded the Huawei-technology system it had piloted in Rivera without a tender. The supplier is the same firm that sells the police cameras and software.
Figure published by the sources
US$ 1.251.900 la ampliación adjudicada por compra directa (Búsqueda, 2026)
Bodies involved
Ministerio del Interior
What it is
Uruguay's police replaced its open analogue radio with the encrypted digital TETRA system in late 2010. El Observador reported in January 2016 that the initial investment was 37 million pesos and that there were around 4,500 British-made terminals at roughly €600 each, reporting their position every two minutes or every two hundred metres, covering Montevideo, Las Piedras, Pando and Canelones while the rest of the interior kept the old open analogue system. In November 2024 the ministry presented a new system: 170 devices for Rivera, with a dedicated radio base, real-time transmission of image and audio, encrypted communications and automatic migration to LTE outside the coverage area. The Presidency reported that representatives of Huawei and DDBA took part in the presentation.
What is questioned
Búsqueda reported on 22 January 2026 that the Interior Ministry expanded that system by US$ 1,251,900 through a direct purchase, as an extension of the 170-device pilot that ran in Rivera between 2024 and 2025. The awardee is HO Tecnología (DDBA LTDA.) and the technology is Huawei LTE MCCS, an encrypted private network for voice, video and data with a dedicated radio base reaching up to 12 kilometres. According to the report, the Unified Command Centre determined the need to continue the service based on the pilot's results in that border area, and Gabriel Lima — then director of that centre and now Durazno police chief — argued the equipment is crucial for surveillance operations across wide areas and lets officers work with greater protection against possible interference and assured connectivity at all times. The same report notes that HO Tecnología also supplies software and surveillance cameras to the National Police in several departments and at venues such as Campeón del Siglo, Estadio Centenario and Gran Parque Central. Búsqueda recorded no objections from other firms nor official concerns about the Chinese origin of the technology.
Why it matters to you
A US$ 1.25 million direct purchase does not compete on price: it is awarded without an open tender. And when a single supplier holds radios, cameras and police software, the State is locked into one company for three critical systems, which makes switching suppliers later far more expensive.
Where it stands
The system is being rolled out after the Rivera pilot. In April 2026 the ministry included secure communications in the technology package it announced as a historic investment, alongside cameras, gantries and drones. As this file closes (August 2026) we found no published challenges, Tribunal de Cuentas resolutions or parliamentary information requests about this expansion later than Búsqueda's 22 January 2026 report.
We could not isolate a defensible set of contracts
This spending does travel through public procurement, but we found no filter that separates this file's contracts from everything else those bodies buy. Rather than show a total that mixes the questioned spending with what nobody disputes, we show none. You can explore the body's contracts yourself from the explorer.
Direct purchases do appear in the state procurement portal, but they are often described with generic objects such as "communications equipment", which makes grouping them hard. To size the relationship it is better to add up every award to the same tax ID, not only those naming the brand.
Explore contracts in the explorer