Mario Lugones: 'We came to put an end to the culture of cheating and to reward effort'

The National Government is determined to put an end to irregular practices that became common actions in previous administrations. That's why it announced that it will call for a new date for the Unified Medical Residency Exam following the suspicious results of the test held on July 1.

An official investigation revealed anomalous results in more than 200 exams. The measure affects 268 applicants who scored 86 points or more, whose results were called into question due to inconsistencies with their academic backgrounds.

The Minister of Health, Mario Lugones, was one of the voices raised in favor of transparency and merit. "In recent days, we detected alleged irregularities in the Unified Medical Residency Exam. That's why we acted immediately: we opened an investigation, suspended the merit ranking, and planned a new exam for those who scored 86 points or more," he stated.

"As Minister of Health of the Nation, my responsibility is to safeguard public health and ensure that those who undergo training do so under fair, transparent, and merit-based conditions," he added.

Lugones emphasized that this measure will not tarnish all those professionals who took the exam honestly. "This doesn't tarnish the efforts of the more than 11,000 professionals who took the exam honestly. On the contrary, we seek to protect those who did things right, recognize their work, and ensure equal conditions," he asserted.

"For this Government, merit and honesty are values to defend: we came to put an end to the culture of cheating and reward effort. Public health is not built on privileges, but on commitment and transparency," the minister concluded.

Anomalies in the Unified Medical Residency Exam

The Government reported that a new date for the Unified Medical Residency Exam will be called after more than 200 suspicious tests were detected.

Of the 268 affected, 149 hold degrees from foreign universities and 119 from national universities. In total, more than 11,000 professionals took the exam at 26 locations across the country; 8,000 did so at Parque Roca, where most of the anomalies were detected, especially among applicants from Ecuador, Colombia, and Bolivia.

According to official data, out of a total of 2,833 foreign applicants who took the medical residency exam, 1,045 are from Ecuador, 787 from Colombia, 383 from Bolivia, 312 from Brazil, 114 from Venezuela, and 61 from Peru.

Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni addressed the issue at the usual press conference. "The technical analysis revealed a pattern of anomalous performance with unusual results that required a review of the entire process. Usually, a diploma from the University of Buenos Aires scores between 80 and 90 points on the exam. In the exam ranking, there are suspicious scores such as scores above 90 and scores above 85 obtained by students who graduated from foreign universities, whose students did not usually appear among the top 500 positions. For example, the Technical University of Manabi (Ecuador) has nine doctors among the top 27 in the ranking," he stated.

Meanwhile, Adorni indicated that the National Directorate of Migration is cross-referencing data with the applicants' records to verify whether there were irregularities in the documentation submitted to obtain the Argentine DNI.

"It is striking that this is happening precisely in the year when the Ministry of Health corrected an injustice that harmed doctors trained at Argentine universities over those who graduated from foreign universities," Adorni highlighted, referring to the recent regulatory change that grants five additional points to graduates of national institutions.

When the Unified Medical Residency Exam will be held

Applicants must join the residencies on September 1, something that will not change despite the new exam, according to the presidential spokesperson, who announced that in the coming hours the Ministry of Health will release the schedule for the exam. "This government upholds merit as a guiding principle. We want the best professionals, not those who try to advance through cheating," Adorni stated in line with Minister Lugones.

"We will go all the way against those who sought to gain an advantage or sabotage the process within the framework of the changes being promoted by the Ministry. We have always said: within the law, everything; outside the law, nothing," he concluded.