Investigation · Flagged companies
Frigorífico Saturno: the barracks’ meat and the tonnes that never arrived
Abasto de Carnes Saturno is one of the State's major meat suppliers: 283 contracts for about 1,140 million pesos with INDA, the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. In the Navy, an audit found a shortfall of about 57 tonnes of meat, over-prices and un-tendered cuts. The case is with the Economic Crimes Prosecutor.
The context
The State's meat supplier
We looked Abasto de Carnes Saturno up in the site's data and it appears in full: 283 meat contracts since 2012, for about 1,140 million pesos. Its biggest buyer is the National Food Institute (INDA), followed by the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and Military Health. It is, in effect, one of the most important meat suppliers to the state apparatus.
That relationship —massive, recurring, verifiable record by record— is exactly what makes the flag checkable. The criminal case does not question all that volume: it centers on the Navy's purchases, for which Saturno has been a meat supplier since 2013.
The scale
Who buys from Saturno
Spending by buying body (the armed-forces ones in alert). INDA leads, but the three forces together top 480 million pesos. The criminal case falls on the Navy.
The case
Shoulder ordered, sirloin delivered
Per the forensic audit in the case, between the Navy's tenders 28/2021 and 28/2022 about 57,398 kg of meat are missing (~$8.4 million): 34,936 kg of shoulder cannot be justified as received. The described maneuver: officers ordered un-tendered cuts —sirloin, chorizo, eye round— even though the award was for shoulder, and the plant set well-above-market prices for those cuts, deducting them from the pending shoulder balance. 26 delivery notes with irregular stamps and signatures were also found.
In the data, the Navy's pork (shoulder) purchases from Saturno in 2021 and 2022 are in plain sight. They do not prove the shortfall —that comes from the internal audit— but they anchor the contractual relationship under investigation: they are the line items from which, per the Navy, the meat did not reach its destination.
The evidence
The Navy's purchases, record by record
Saturno's contracts with the Navy Command, verified in the data and linked to their record on the site. In red, the cut of the shortfall: pork (shoulder).
| Year | Item | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Carne vacuna (uso humano) — 8 renglones | $ 19,7 M | View contract → |
| 2021 | Carne vacuna (uso humano) | $ 10,2 M | View contract → |
| 2021 | Carne porcina (bondiola) — el corte del faltante | $ 9,1 M | View contract → |
| 2021 | Carne porcina (bondiola) — el corte del faltante | $ 9,1 M | View contract → |
| 2022 | Carne porcina (bondiola) | $ 8,8 M | View contract → |
| 2022 | Carne porcina (bondiola) | $ 8,8 M | View contract → |
The status
Where the case stands
The Navy filed the criminal complaint in late 2022. The case is with the Economic & Complex Crimes Prosecutor (Sandra Fleitas), with at least 12 officers summoned to testify and a parallel internal administrative investigation.
The other side: the criminal probe centers on the Navy officers, not the plant, which is not formally charged. What is questioned are its prices and its delivery notes. Saturno remains, in the data, a regular State meat supplier.
Sources
Verified sources
- El Observador — Almirantes encargaban lomo a un frigorífico que había ganado la licitación por bondiola
- El Observador — Doce oficiales de la Armada citados por la desaparición de 35 toneladas de carne
- El Observador — La Armada denunció a Fiscalía maniobras irregulares en compras de carne, frutas y verduras
- Montevideo Portal — Se detectaron sobreprecios y más toneladas desaparecidas
- Caras y Caretas — La maniobra millonaria: en la Armada compraban carne que nunca llegaba a destino
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How to read this investigation
The contracts, amounts and buyers come from the site's State-procurement data (OCDS), verified and linked to their record on the site. The 57-tonne shortfall, the over-prices and the irregular delivery notes come from the forensic audit and the Navy's complaint, reported by the cited press —not from the data.
The plant is not charged. It is named as a State supplier and as a questioned party in a public case. A contract or a high price is not, on its own, proof of a crime. Anyone named may add their response.