PAA relaunched by Lula has a history of deviations and irregularities

The federal government’s Food Acquisition Program (PAA), relaunched on Wednesday (22) by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), has a history marked by fraud, which became a police case, and “strange situations” pointed out by the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU), in which thousands of tons of food were donated to a few people.

In the government of Dilma Rousseff (PT), there were cases of 1,455 kg of banana distributed per person, in a social action in Bahia, and 1,184 kg of corn per beneficiary, in Presidente Prudente (SP). Although management boasts that it has already distributed R$ 8 billion to 500,000 family farmers since 2003, the TCU audit in 2016 showed that intermediaries took 70% of the resources.

Some deviations gave rise to Federal Police operations, such as Schistosoma, in 2012, in Araraquara and region (SP), and Pesticide, in 2019, in cities in Mato Grosso do Sul. The frauds involved employees of the National Supply Company (Conab), cooperatives and city halls, and culminated in arrests, accusations of conspiracy and fraud against the Union.

In this new phase of the program, the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger informed that it will prioritize “women, blacks, indigenous peoples, quilombolas and agrarian reform settlers”. The initial amount of transfers must be R$ 500 million.

A careful reading of the audit carried out by the Federal Court of Auditors in 2016 shows that a chronic evil of the program under PT administration, apart from the bad faith and corruption of some, was the administrative disorganization and lack of minimal governance care.

Exorbitant volumes of banana, corn, cucumber…

The huge volumes of bananas and corn for half a dozen beneficiaries of the PAA were just the most expressive among several other horticultural products – such as carrots, yams, peppers, cucumbers, watermelons, okra and pumpkins – which registered a per capita distribution much higher than the average consumption annual calculated by IBGE. In yam, the distribution was 113,828% higher than the average.

The distortions went virtually unnoticed at the time of the facts, between 2012 and 2014, but were found in TCU’s operational audit of the Food Acquisition Program, in 2016. In a 2017 judgment, TCU determined a series of corrective measures in the PAA, modality purchase with simultaneous donation, operated by Conab nationwide. The process is still in progress and the only public piece available, at the moment, is the Judgment of relation 3293/2020 – Plenary.

TCU inspectors noticed the purchase, without bidding, of 72,782 kg of bananas for Pastoral da Criança in Bahia, to serve 50 beneficiaries. By dividing the amount of food by the number of beneficiaries, the technicians concluded that they had found an “extraordinary situation”: 1,455 kg of bananas per person, against an average annual consumption of 6.9 kg per person, according to the IBGE.

Another item that also clashed in terms of tons was the volume of corn in another contract, this time with Mitra Diocesana in Presidente Prudente: 90,000 kg delivered for the benefit of 76 people. On average, 1,184 kg of corn per beneficiary.

“The calculations were used as if the food were delivered for consumption during a year, however the result would be equally expressive if people’s consumption was used for the maximum validity of the CPRs (two years)”, highlighted the audit, also pointing out the difficulties in storing these products.

Among other basic items also provided in pantagruelic quantities, it is worth mentioning cucumber (29,764 kg for 51 beneficiaries, or 583 kg per person), pepper (15,000 kg for 350 beneficiaries, or 42.8 kg per person), watermelon (32,140 kg for 52 beneficiaries, or 618 kg per person) and okra (5,480 kg for 20 beneficiaries, or 274 kg per person).

Numbers point to managerial disorganization

So much food delivered at once, theoretically for few people, does not necessarily mean that religious or NGO leaders have indulged in bananas, okra, cucumber and pepper. It is reasonable, and feasible, to understand that the problem was much more linked to the administrative and accounting disorganization of the Food Acquisition Program than to the bad faith of beneficiaries.

At the time, the technicians of the Federal Court of Auditors were parsimonious, and preferred not to draw immediate conclusions, just based on the numbers. But they also did not rule out the possibility of mismanagement.

“It is important to highlight that these cases are not necessarily about fraud or deviation, but reveal lack of control and lack of planning between the acquisitions made by Conab and the quantity demanded by the receiving organizations in the PAA/CDS processes. As an effect of this situation, it is noted that the lack of planning for reconciling the supply of food from family farming and the demand of the receiving units can result in waste, fraud and service to people who are not included in the target public of the public policy, even causing financial losses,” the report said.

All the purchases mentioned in the report, as well as the new purchases that the Lula government intends to make in the PAA, were exempt from bidding. The Rural Product Certificate – Donation (CPR Donation) modality, where the distortions were pointed out, is back.

Through this instrument, suppliers deliver food to an organization or association, which sends the products to the beneficiary institutions. These institutions make the delivery to the final consumer and need to confirm the closing of the cycle to Conab. Only then does Conab settle purchases from suppliers.

Deaths and politicians among PAA beneficiaries

In the two-year period inspected, the TCU found 15,951 beneficiaries who showed evidence of non-compliance with the program’s requirements. Among them, 548 dead, 2,182 owners of rural property with an area greater than four fiscal modules (limit for participation in the PAA) and 2,331 people who had full-time occupation in another state of the federation, different from the one in which the purchase was made.

49 people with an elective mandate, 2,181 holders of public office and 65,000 with no connection to rural property in the National Rural Registry System were also classified as “risk situations” in terms of the profile of the beneficiaries.

Administrative disorganization was the rule in the audited period. Of the PAA/CDS inspections carried out by Sufis/Conab, between 2012 and July 2015, only 16% of the activities were considered regular.

The way in which the CPRs were carried out, concluded the TCU report, “what is perceived is that a significant portion of the income remains in the hands of entrepreneurial intermediaries – cooperatives and processing companies – often using a fragile link with family farmers. to legitimize their proposals for participation”.

In this way, the audit concluded, “they take advantage of public resources to obtain a commercial advantage over other market agents. Note that the supplier beneficiary, who is the one the Program aims to support, receives only thirty percent of the value of the product delivered to the receiving unit and all the rest is divided between the cooperative and the outsourced industry”.

Program aimed at the MST and similar

For economist José Pio Martins, who has already managed a cooperative in Londrina (PR), the volume of resources from the Food Acquisition Program – R$ 500 million announced by Minister Paulo Teixeira, of Agrarian Development – ​​may be little to fight hunger , but, on the other hand, it is significant in the benefit of militancy.

“It’s like saying ‘I have a thousand loaves of bread here and I’m going to launch a bread distribution program’ to feed 54 million poor people on the social register. It’s like shooting a cannon to kill a cricket”, he says. “The impression is that the program intends to help the MST and some family farmers. Even family farming in Brazil is much greater than R$ 500 million”.

In the opinion of jurist Romeu Bacellar Filho, who was once president of the Ibero-American Association of Administrative Law, the best way to curb deviations in social programs that involve public spending without bidding is the permanent inspection of organized civil society.

“Popular participation is lacking. Recruit people from trade associations, neighborhood associations, housewives to be part of this process. Since there is no bidding process, an announcement should be made announcing that the government will buy food to be distributed, and inviting entities and people interested in participating. You don’t even need to participate, just inspect”, he points out.

The report contacted TCU and Conab to find out if there were actually corrections in the program, following the audit’s recommendations. No demonstration has yet arrived. Pastoral da Criança in Salvador and Mitra Diocesana in Presidente Prudente were also contacted, where the two most significant cases of per capita food distribution outside the standards occurred. A return is also awaited and the space remains open for demonstrations.

In the speech to relaunch the Food Acquisition Program, in Pernambuco, Lula promised: “We already did this once, and now we are going to do it with much more competence, with much more willingness and much faster”.