Nísia Trindade: TCU requests reimbursement of R$ 11 million – 12/18/2023 – Balance and Health

The technical area of ​​the TCU (Federal Audit Court) proposes that the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, be obliged to reimburse the public coffers in the amount of R$ 11 million for damages allegedly committed to the public treasury.

The request is in an opinion issued on the 4th of the court’s General Secretariat for External Control. The process concluded that Nísia did not prove the regularity of the application of resources transferred by the Union in a contract signed with Fiocruz (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz), when the body was presided over by her.

Auditor Sérgio Brandão Sanchez, who signed the document, said that there were errors in the methodology in a study carried out by the foundation on drug use in the Brazilian population, in addition to that items in the contract notice were not fulfilled.

The document still needs to be approved by the minister reporting the case, Antonio Anastasia, and by the other members of the court in the court’s plenary. The trial date has not yet been set.

Questioned by Sheet regarding the topic and whether Nísia would like to comment on it, the press office of the Ministry of Health responded that the demands would be handled by Fiocruz, as the case involves the foundation.

Fiocruz’s communication stated that the TCU process is still ongoing and “follows the regular procedures established by the federal public administration” and that “there has been no decision yet”.

He also said that he reiterates the fairness, scientific merit and credibility of the survey and that, with the opening of the adversarial process, he will present the necessary evidence for the favorable conclusion of the process by the body.

The TCU’s open process, called special accounting, was initiated by Senad (National Secretariat for Drug Policies and Asset Management) in 2022, a body linked to the Ministry of Justice.

Senad contracted the study in 2014 for R$7.9 million, with resources from the National Anti-Drug Fund. Fiocruz competed for the notice and was selected.

The survey, which interviewed almost 16 thousand people in the country, concluded that there is no epidemic of drug use in Brazil. It involved 400 professionals — including researchers in the field of epidemiology and statistics, field interviewers and support staff.

Michel Temer’s government shelved the survey in 2017. The Justice department claimed that the study did not allow data to be compared with previous surveys.

He was only released in August 2019, after an agreement between the AGU (Attorney General of the Union), the Ministry of Justice and Fiocruz.

The research aimed to estimate and evaluate epidemiological parameters in the population to serve as input in the development of policies for the prevention and control of drug abuse problems.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the flaws in the survey would not allow the comparison of data with previous research, which was foreseen in the scope of the contract’s obligations.

The topic said that the data obtained should be statistically compared with the results of previous household surveys, aiming for comparisons that could reveal possible trends in drug use in the Brazilian population.

The ministry even opened an administrative process on the issue. According to the TCU, those responsible in the internal phase of the process were notified.

However, according to the court, there were not enough justifications from those involved to eliminate the irregularity or the return of the resources, therefore, special accounting was instituted.

From the analysis of the documents, it was found that Nísia, Fiotec (Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development in Health), a body linked to Fiocruz, and another former director of the foundation, were responsible for the management and execution of the federal resources received.

The TCU agreed with the secretariat’s allegations that Nísia, as manager of the contract, executed it without achieving the objectives set out in the notice and failed to take the measures within her power. Because of this, according to the court, the result rendered the object “unusable and without functionality”.

“The absence of the measures within its reach, necessary to achieve the objectives agreed in the instrument in question, whether because the object is unusable or because it has not achieved functionality, resulted in the impossibility of its use by the beneficiaries, and, consequently, in damage to the treasury corresponding to the full amount transferred”, says the TCU.

Sanchez also said that there is no exclusion of illegality, culpability and punishability in Nísia’s conduct and that it is reasonable to assume that the person responsible was aware of the illegality of his conduct.

“It was required to conduct something different from that practiced, that is, to take all necessary measures to achieve the objectives agreed for the instrument in question”, he said.

He also found guilty for the same reasons and in solidarity all those responsible for the contract. Furthermore, he recommended that they present defense allegations or collect the total amount of the debt quantified in relation to the irregularity, adjusted for inflation, to be returned to the National Anti-Drug Fund.

“All of the resources transferred must be reimbursed, since the execution of the object did not meet the technical specifications contained in the notice, which resulted in the object’s total lack of functionality and unserviceability,” he said.

Fiocruz responded, through a note to the report, that it was important to highlight that at no time were administrative or financial procedures related to the research subject to questioning by the funder.

He also said that at the time of sending the accounts, Senad asked questions related to technical and methodological issues of the research, “which were promptly answered by Fiocruz”.

“The conciliation process mediated by the AGU was closed in 2022 without the controversy surrounding technical issues between Fiocruz and Senad being resolved,” he said.

Furthermore, he stated that the research report has already had more than 80 thousand hits and has been used as a reference for another 345 studies.

He also said that 12 scientific articles were published that used his data and that such metrics “reinforce the recognition and importance of research, both for the academic community and for society, nationally and internationally”.