The INYM appoints Sebastián Pratto as internal auditor following a competitive selection process

The Board of Directors of the National Yerba Mate Institute (INYM) appointed certified public accountant Sebastián Nicolás Pratto as the organization’s Internal Auditor, upon declaring the conclusion of the merit-based competition processed under File No. 1502/2026. The decision was formalized through INYM Resolution No. 109/2026, signed in Posadas, Misiones, on October 9, 2026, and published in the Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic on October 15, 2026.

The appointment is based on Article 17 of Law No. 25,564, which stipulates that the Institute’s internal oversight body consists of a trustee and an auditor with a qualifying university degree resulting from a merit-based competition. Article 18 assigns them the functions of auditing the administration, verifying availability, titles, securities, and obligations, and providing reasoned reports on the annual report, inventory, balance sheet, and income statement, while Regulatory Decree No. 1240/2002 requires the auditor to be a registered lawyer or certified public accountant.

The position became vacant on July 3, 2026, following the termination by mutual agreement of the previous auditor, Mario Amílcar Shwoihort. INYM Resolution No. 77/2026 approved the job description and the competition rules, and arranged for the temporary acting performance of the functions by Marcelo Williams Otto.

The competition: 21 envelopes and 12 admissible applications

The call for applications was published in the newspapers Primera Edición (Misiones) and El Litoral (Corrientes) during July 2026, with a deadline of fifteen business days that expired on August 7, 2026, at 1:30 PM. Twenty-one sealed envelopes were received, and the admissibility report determined that 12 applications were complete, eight were incomplete, and one did not correspond to the process.

The requirements demanded of the applicants were:

• Degree in Public Accounting.
• No less than five years of professional experience.
• Active registration with five years of seniority before the Professional Council of Economic Sciences of Misiones or Corrientes.
• Curricular and professional background.
• Sworn statement of no affiliation with persons registered in the Registry of Operators of the Yerba Mate Sector.

On August 25, 2026, the Board personally interviewed eleven applicants for ten minutes each, including Pratto, Otto, Nicolás Silvero, Nadia Gabriela Krieger, Nicolás Federico Romero, and Marcos Azamé.

Voting and background of the appointee

The selection was decided between Pratto and Otto: seven directors voted for the former and three for the latter. Directors Elian Genski and Gerardo Vallejos, representatives of the cooperative sector, abstained as they did not have a mandate from their sector.

Pratto, D.N.I. No. 27.574.988, provided proof of a Public Accountant degree issued by the National University of Córdoba in 2003, registration No. 2365 from the Professional Council of Economic Sciences of Misiones, and more than twelve years of service at the INYM, where he served as Manager. The resolution states that he did not participate in the admissibility analysis nor in the deliberation and voting that arranged his selection.

Mandatory Abstention and Substitute Control

The Board recognized that the status of former Manager may affect the independence required of the control body and established an abstention regime: the auditor may not rule or issue an opinion on acts, files, contracts, payments, or periods in which he intervened, nor on the activities that were under his responsibility during the twelve months following his appointment. In those cases, control will be assumed by the Syndicate, and for the financial statements of the 2026 fiscal year, the appointment of an ad hoc independent auditor is planned.

Transition and New Management

The appointment is subject to the signing and approval of an agreement to modify contractual conditions before the Ministry of Labor and Employment of the Province of Misiones, and to the placement in Hierarchical Level II, Scale B, Category 3 of the Institute’s salary scale. The Management of the INYM will be exercised, from that same date, by public accountant Rosana Andrea Biale, D.N.I. No. 26.394.690.

The appointment renews the internal oversight body of an institute that regulates the yerba mate economy and whose functions include ruling on the general balance sheet of the fiscal year and reporting irregularities to the National Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and to the relevant ministries of Misiones and Corrientes. The abstention regime and the substitute control seek to preserve the objectivity of the position, in a context of simultaneous replacement of the Internal Audit and the Management.

Source: Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic, October 15, 2026, First Section (official reference: INYM Resolution No. 109/2026, notice No. 76279/26).