References of the Retirement and Pension Fund for University Professionals (CJPPU) They questioned the rescue of the Medical Union of Uruguay Assistance Center (Casmu) for 56 million dollars, opening a new chapter of tension with the Government in the face of its passivity in providing a solution to its deficit.
Last week the Parliament The US Congress unanimously approved the bill that proposes creating a guarantee fund of 56 million dollars for Casmu with the aim of restructuring liabilities. A decision that generated some discontent, even among the workers of the mutual fund itself, in the face of the possibility of an intervention by the authorities, something that the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) not yet confirmed.
Among the dissatisfied are some representatives of the Caja de Profesionales who questioned the amount given to the mutual fund while they are still waiting for a solution to their financial deficit situation. Its director, Robert Long, He criticised the fact that the mutual fund was not intervened, a measure that he found “incomprehensible”.
“I could sarcastically say that in our complicated situation, perhaps the best thing is for them to intervene, with or without displacement, and resolve the financial assistance,” Long said, according to La Diaria, adding: “It leaves a very bitter taste, somewhere between sadness and indignation.”
For his part, one of the CJPPU directors elected by active members, Fernando Rodriguez Sanguinetti, He said that “the double standard seems untrue.” “The Executive Branch and the President of the Republic want to save a mutual fund, which is usually bankrupt and is being saved with millions of dollars from taxpayers, and there is not even a ‘bridge loan’ for the Caja de Profesionales,” he questioned.
The tense relationship between the government and the Caja de Profesionales
In mid-May, the Caja de Profesionales warned that it has funds until the first quarter of 2025 and assured that the recovery and macro solutions are in the hands of the Executive and the Parliament.
However, the Constitution establishes that any modification in budgetary matters and, therefore, also in matters related to the social security can be made up to one year prior to the presidential elections. Therefore, in order to address new proposals for the Caja de Profesionales, we must wait until Uruguay choose who will be its next president, either in October or November, after a possible second round.
In this regard, the president of the CJPPU, Daniel Alza, He explained at the time that the board is waiting for the elections to pass before resuming the search for a solution for the financial crisis that crosses the institution and the projected scenario of a deficit of up to 100 million dollars annually in the next five years. This, it should be noted, after the bill failed to pass in Parliament last year.
“What this board could do, it has already done,” said Alza, recalling that the current leadership entered in December 2021 and that in February 2022 it took “the first corrective measures aimed at alleviating the situation that the institute has regarding its financial balance”.
“We have been making corrections, we have been working on the management, but we hope to run as soon as the elections are held, with the party that is chosen, in short, to start working to find other types of solutions for the situation of the institute,” he added.
“We have to keep looking alternatives and present different alternatives, or continue to insist on some that we understand can make the institute viable,” said Alza.
In October last year, the project to reform the Caja de Profesionales failed to advance in the Parliament in time to meet constitutional deadlines, and its rescue was suspended until at least the end of this year.
Source: Ambito
