The CGU audit was released this Monday (15).| Photo: Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

The Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) identified R$ 3.8 billion in possible overpayments in the Auxílio Brasil Program, which ran between 2021 and 2022. The CGU audit was released this Monday (15). According to the agency’s investigation, the crossing of different databases indicates that 468 thousand families outside the program’s income profile received the benefit, between January and October 2022, with payments of more than R$ 218 million per month, which represents approximately R$ 2.18 billion in the evaluated period.

“Among the families that had income identified by the audit team in these other government databases, about 75% had members who received benefits on the INSS payroll, while about 17% of families had income registered in GFIP [informações previdenciárias] in the month prior to the PAB payroll [Programa Auxílio Brasil] analysed”, says the organ, in a note.

In another analysis, the CGU estimates that control failures in the monthly follow-up of payments, which should include procedures for updating information on the registration situation, may have generated undue payment of the Auxílio Brasil to about 367 thousand families, on average, per month , in the period from January to October 2022, informed Agência Brasil. The possibility of overpayment is around BRL 171 million per month, which totals BRL 1.71 billion in the period.

Based on the audit, the CGU indicated to the Ministry of Social Development, the department responsible for the income transfer program, the adoption of measures that consist of nine recommendations, including the need to reassess the situation of the families that entered the program and that had indicative impediment or ineligibility.