Bolivia Cancels Mining Cooperative Debts to Health Fund

Why this is here: The decree cancels over 95 million bolivianos in debts accumulated by mining cooperatives between 2016 and 2025—60.5 million owed by Ferreco and 35.8 million by Fecoman.

The Bolivian government issued Supreme Decree 5618, canceling audits and outstanding debts owed by gold mining cooperatives to the National Health Fund (CNS). The decree nullifies all CNS audits of cooperatives affiliated with Ferreco and Fecoman from January 2016 to December 2025. It also cancels charge notices issued during that period, totaling over 95 million bolivianos.

Government officials clarify this is not a debt forgiveness, but a technical regularization. They aim to audit and review contributions from 2013 to 2016, after discovering a lack of automatic debiting of 1.8% contributions through Senarecom. The decree responds to a regulatory gap, noting the short-term social security authority lacked rules for auditing “delegated insurance” within cooperatives.

The government seeks to establish a specific auditing mechanism for the mining sector. Cooperatives have committed to paying any real debts determined by the new technical and accounting review. Further work continues to verify the destination of previously collected funds and ensure transparency in the process.