Uruguay
The Congress of Mayors said it did not receive a formal complaint from the Supreme Court over departmental debts
Authorities from the body were consulted in Parliament after the Supreme Court of Justice warned about multimillion-dollar debts owed by several intendencias. The Congress said no official note on the matter had reached it.
The Congress of Mayors said in Parliament that it had not received any formal communication from the Supreme Court of Justice over the debts that several departmental governments maintain with the Judiciary for astreintes, according to la diaria.
The issue was raised in the Senate committee analyzing the Accountability Bill, following a question promoted by Senator Bettiana Díaz. A day earlier, in that same setting, the legal secretariat of the Supreme Court of Justice, Juan Pablo Novella, had outlined the situation as a request for help and explained that there are intendencias that owe from thousands to millions of dollars for noncompliance with judicial rulings, which results in daily fines.
Novella said that many intendencias do not comply with what is ordered and noted that, since the State is immune from attachment, the Judiciary cannot enforce seizures against those departmental governments.
According to la diaria, the president of the Congress of Mayors, Carlos Enciso, said that since he took office in mid-July no note from the Supreme Court on this matter had been received. He added that the issue could be directly linked to claims addressed to each intendencia. At the same time, he considered it desirable for there to be a state clearinghouse to facilitate the resolution of debts between public bodies.
In the same vein, the executive secretary of the Congress of Mayors, Macarena Rubio, stressed that the body did not receive any formal request from the Judiciary related to astreintes. Even so, she noted that this does not rule out contacts with a particular intendencia and added that it is common for departmental governments to agree with other bodies on the transfer of premises or loan agreements, in cooperation that does not necessarily go through the Congress.
In the Senate, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Doris Morales, indicated that the largest debts correspond to Canelones and Rocha, in addition to other cases such as Durazno. Novella specified that, in the case of Canelones, the debt is close to 3,000,000 dollars.
According to la diaria, Natalia Carbajal, from the legal area of the Intendencia de Canelones, said that the municipality is already negotiating a payment plan with the Supreme Court. She explained that the amount stems from different stages under several administrations, which makes it more complex to determine the exact figure before an agreement.
Carbajal also confirmed that the Supreme Court requested access to properties of the intendencia and said that different alternatives are being evaluated. As a precedent, she mentioned that in Las Piedras a Judicial Branch mediation center already operates in the municipality building and that replicating that experience in other municipal offices is being studied.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with assistance from artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not do its own reporting on this event.
