Mario Bergara's new bureaucracy: more positions, more spending, less city

Montevideo's elected mayor, Mario Bergara, presented on June 16 at the El Artesano Cultural Center what was nothing more than a plan to further expand the municipal bureaucracy for the 2025-2030 period.

During the event, he spoke without shame or embarrassment: "These 30 women and 23 men are the visible face of a much broader team made up of thousands of municipal workers."

Under the guise of a "gender-balanced cabinet", Bergara formalized the creation of new layers of positions, departments, divisions, and managements that, far from improving services for citizens, guarantee that the weight of the state apparatus will continue to be the damned stick in the wheel in the lives of Montevideo's residents.

New creations in the organizational chart

• New Department of Institutional Coordination, headed by Justo Onandi.
  • New Metropolitan Coordination Division, led by Alba Florio.
• General Secretariat (Viviana Repetto) incorporates:
  • New Innovation Management, which is added to the already existing areas.
• Department of Economic Development (Camilo Benítez):
  • Montevideo Rural Unit becomes Rural Development Division (Liber López).
  • New Local Economy Management, headed by Nicolás Echevarría.
• Department of Financial Resources (Laura Tábarez):
  • New Purchasing Management, led by Gustavo Cabrera.

You may also be interested in this investigation into Mujica's unexpected connections during the tough years. A reading that offers another side of the myth built by the left.

The bureaucracy proposed by Bergara:

• General Accounting: Alejandra Martínez
• Legal Advisory: Álvaro Richino
• General Secretariat: Viviana Repetto
• Deputy General Secretariat: Diego Olivera
• Gender Equality Advisory: Fiorela Buzeta
• ... (full list maintained for complete context) ...

The cost of a new leftist term

Currently, Montevideo's City Hall allocates approximately 12.5 billion pesos (about 317 million dollars) annually to salaries and benefits, which represents about 42% of the departmental budget. In contrast, direct investment in public works and services barely reaches 17%. During 2023, the municipality also allocated around 17 million dollars to direct contracts and 10 million to overtime.

The expansion of the municipal structure through the creation of new departments, divisions, and managements will shamelessly increase these expenses. Just the new managements and divisions will raise salary spending by around 1.18 million pesos per month, that is, more than 14 million pesos per year, not including other associated costs.

You may also be interested in this reflection on the true face of social democracy. A critical essay on its promise and its practice.

The new Frente Amplio administration, this time with Mario Bergara's face, will continue doing the only thing it knows: expanding the state apparatus and devouring, with more voracity than ever, the pockets of Montevideo's workers.