Absence of the Social Security system generates undue spending of R$ 5 billion in emergency aid, says TCU

At least BRL 4.9 billion in installments of emergency aid unduly paid in 2020 could have been avoided if the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government had implemented a system with data on retirements, pensions and remuneration granted by the Union, states and municipalities.

The creation of the integrated base is a requirement of constitutional amendment 103, which deals with the pension reform, enacted in November 2019. Until today, the platform has not left the drawing board.

The damage was pointed out by the TCU (Union Court of Auditors) in a December 2021 judgment and, in practice, may be even greater.

The fine-toothed comb targeted just R$9.8 billion in undue payments effectively identified and canceled by the Ministry of Citizenship.

However, the court estimates that the government spent R$21.5 billion more than would be necessary, considering the program’s eligibility rules, including not being a Social Security beneficiary or a public servant.

In addition, the auditors arrived at the number observing the reason for the suspensions analyzed: whether the beneficiary was retired from the INSS, or a public servant, among other impediments that would be identifiable in the integrated system.

Not all cancellations had this level of detail and, therefore, were not counted by the TCU as avoidable. Total spending on aid was BRL 295.1 billion in 2020.

The Social Security reform established that the Union should create an integrated data system containing information on the remuneration of civil and military servants, retirements and pensions from all social security systems, in addition to assistance benefits such as the BPC (Benefício de Prestação Continuada).

The text also said that all Union Powers, states and municipalities should provide the necessary information for structuring the system.

From this platform, it would be easier to cross-reference data and find out, for example, if a candidate to receive assistance from the federal government was a civil servant in a state or municipality, among other possibilities. Today, this work is done in a punctual way.

Since the creation of emergency aid, control bodies have been divided on several fronts to help the government identify undue payments. There were notorious cases of public servants and the military of the Armed Forces receiving the help that should be paid to the vulnerable.

As part of the investigation of the TCU, the federal government claimed that it still needs to regulate the creation of the system, which will allow instant cross-referencing of INSS and federal administration databases, among others. But the court of accounts stated, in the instruction of the process, that there are already legal norms that make possible the implementation of the system.

“It is also noted that other public policies are impacted by the lack of data integration provided for in the constitutional regulations, not restricted to emergency aid”, said in his vote the rapporteur of the process, Minister Bruno Dantas.

In the judgment, the court issued a determination for the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to present, within 60 days, an action plan for the institution of the integrated data system. The folder will also have two years to get the platform up and running.

Failure to comply with a determination can generate fines or other penalties, such as removal of the manager.

wanted by leaf, the Ministry of Labor and Welfare said it was working to launch the integrated system “as soon as possible”, but did not set any deadline.

According to the folder, there are a series of steps to be followed in order to measure the paper. They include ensuring that data from all agencies involved communicate with each other and defining where, when and how the information will be stored.

It is also necessary to stipulate who will be responsible for managing the data and how they can be consulted. Only then will the government be able to develop the system itself.

The ministry said that the steps related to the custody of the information have already been carried out and involve the folder itself and the INSS. The database that will receive the data will be the Cnis (National Registry of Social Information).

“The ministry is preparing for the coming months the definition of management and other necessary regulatory points”, he said, without specifying a timetable.

“As there is a lot of information in different formats, having the legal regulation is not enough to put the system into operation. It is necessary to develop an information base and evolve it throughout the integrations that are being carried out”, said the ministry.

In a second moment, the government estimates that the ministries of Citizenship and Women, Family and Human Rights will also feed the system. However, the ministry did not mention when the other bodies will be integrated into the database.

The regional prosecutor Zélia Pierdoná, who coordinates the GTI (interinstitutional working group) of Social Security and Social Assistance linked to the MPF (Federal Public Ministry), says that the integrated system will represent a great advance in terms of control.

She assesses, however, that its implementation still comes up against corporations. “It involves a lot of resistance. Not only from different powers within the federal, state and municipal administration, but among the federative entities themselves”, says Pierdoná.

The prosecutor recalls that the military has already resisted opening data on other occasions – the TCU had to enter the field for the Armed Forces to open the black box of inactive compensation. But she believes that the disclosure of military personnel receiving emergency aid may end up being an argument in favor of the sharing initiative.

“These resistances will have to be broken. It is a determination for the Union to do this”, he says.