“Support foundations are slush funds for federal universities”, says professor

Support foundations responsible for executing the majority of the budget allocated to federal universities are, in different regions of the country, taking advantage of loopholes in the legislation to apply the funds they receive irregularly.

Professors and employees from some of the institutions linked to the support foundations reported to the People’s Gazette irregularities such as the appointment of a fourth-semester psychology student to produce technical notes, the purchase of a plane ticket from Brasília to São Paulo for R$18,000 and several hiring of more expensive services when there were cheaper options.

The main transparency laws for public bodies in the country do not apply to support foundations, which facilitates exorbitant spending and corruption. “The foundations end up functioning as a kind of slush fund. Where there are problems such as a lack of strict control, lack of transparency and improper hiring made by recommendation and without publishing notices”, says Denise Leal Abano, professor at the Federal University of Sergipe.

The idea of ​​creating institutions to reduce bureaucracy in the use of resources that flow through the academic community is attractive. But when it comes to the public budget, normally, the ease of using the money is inversely proportional to the transparency given to these expenses.

Officially, it is up to the state Public Prosecutor’s Offices to analyze the accounts presented by these institutions. But, according to sources heard by People’s Gazette, these payments have become, in some cases, a pure formality. Specifics of the projects and activities carried out are not included in the documents presented. Consequently, it is not possible to identify whether the investment is compatible with the structure used and the results achieved.

Payment of “extra income” to servers

Support foundations, as they are private institutions, are left out of a large part of the umbrella of legislation that controls public resources. Among them, Law 14,133 of 2021, which deals with bidding and administrative contracts. This way, it is very easy for them to hire friends and acquaintances.

Recent report from People’s Gazette showed that the Foundation for Scientific and Technological Enterprises (Finatec), which supports the University of Brasília (UnB), hired UnB’s own employees to hold the National Education Conference. Payments to servers ranged from R$8,000 to R$29,000.

“Today, research foundations are practically used to pay research grants for public servants who are limited in receiving funds from public bodies”, says a civil servant who works close to Finatec and prefers not to identify herself.

In relation to payments for research grants, employees can receive up to the value of the constitutional ceiling, which is currently R$44,008.52, and the amount received is not even taxed. “But still, the University of Brasília does not have any type of control over this”, adds the employee, who says she has already identified two professors receiving above the ceiling.

In a note (in full at the end of the text), Finatec informed that “the responsibility for controlling the limit of the remuneration ceiling lies with the scholarship holder himself and the institution to which he is linked (main source), including on account of other eventual earnings, of which the supporting foundation is not aware.”

“When contracting for a Covid-19 project, a 4th period psychology undergraduate student was hired to prepare a technical note about the pandemic”, reported Professor Abano. According to her, the Comptroller General of the Union has already identified that there was a loss of around R$700,000 in one of the projects paid for by the Sergipe Research and Extension Support Foundation (Fapese), which involved purchasing tests for Covid. -19.

Unnecessary spending on contracts and travel

“UnB has the bidding contract for coffee break and student transportation. But sometimes they prefer to contract this service via Finatec, paying more, instead of using the bidding process”, says the server. According to her, when the bid is ready, the purchasing process via Finatec or bidding has the same level of bureaucracy and time. When purchasing through Finatec, the University of Brasília also chooses to pay a fee of 8% of the total value of purchases for the services provided by the support foundation.

According to her, even with a contrary opinion issued by the UnB Federal Attorney’s Office, Finatec carries out “institutional development projects” that serve to pay for recurring university purchases such as coffee, water and toilet paper. These and other items could be purchased through bidding by the University of Brasília itself, as they have volume and high demand.

One of the statements found on the Finatec website shows the expense of R$ 18,092.18 on air tickets for a trip from Brasília to São Paulo. This amount was paid with resources from the special secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic. “This is the result of a lack of management and planning by servers in general”, reports the server.

“The extract contained in the Transparency Portal combined all requests for the four projects mentioned, giving the mistaken impression that it referred to the acquisition of a ticket for a single section”, replied Finatec.

Outdated transparency websites

Although the need for transparency is explicit in the law that governs relations between universities and supporting foundations, in practice there is little information publicly available. “The rule is not transparency. Pages are difficult to navigate. In addition to a slush fund for universities, it is a big black box”, highlights Abano.

The Research Support Foundation (Funape) at the Federal University of Goiás is an example of a lack of transparency. Most of the projects listed on their website have a confidentiality clause. Projects that can be accessed by the public only provide planning and omit information related to execution.

“Not all purchases are made on transparency sites. On the Finatec website, after information was requested under the Access to Information Law, they removed purchases. There is also some data with incorrect values, which leads citizens to make mistakes”, says a civil servant who works close to Finatec.

For Finatec, the website “presents all the information required by applicable legislation, allowing the necessary information to be obtained about ongoing projects. The information is made available for the period stipulated in the legislation”.

Support foundations are subject to both the Federal Audit Court and the Federal Comptroller General, in addition to the accountability that must be presented to the Public Ministry.

Finatec clarification note

In response to the request for information, Finatec – Foundation for Scientific and Technological Enterprises clarifies the following:

01. Payment of the value of grants for projects occurs in the amount approved in the respective work plan, approved by the supported institution, which, through its intervention in the administrative process, holds all information about all aspects of the project, even before the start of the project. its execution, including the financial expenses involved. The responsibility for controlling the salary ceiling limit lies with the scholarship holder and the institution to which he or she is linked (main source), including due to other eventual gains, of which the supporting foundation is not aware.

02. The expense related to air tickets, mentioned in the question, in the amount of R$ 18 thousand reais referred to the acquisition of travel segments in projects 43063/2023, 43208/2023, 43209/2023 and 43210/2023, for people different and on different dates, as detailed below:

• Project 43063/2023: VCP BSB VCP ticket – round trip – 10/06/2023. Purpose: Participation in the Workshop on features and requirements of the Participatory Brazil Platform for the Conferences and Brazil Without Hunger modules.

• Project 43208/2023: Passagem Parnaíba BSB Parnaíba – departure: 08/10; return: 05/10. Purpose: Planning and definition meeting for the strategic products of the UnB partnership with SGPR.

• Project 43209/2023. Ticket FOR BSB FOR one way: 10/10 – return: 11/10. Purpose: planning and definition meeting for the strategic products of the UnB partnership with SGPR.

• Project 43210/2023. VPC BSB VPC ticket – outward: 10/10, return: 15/10. Purpose: planning and definition meeting for strategic products of the UnB partnership with SGPR

03. The extract on the Transparency Portal combined all requests for the four projects mentioned, giving the mistaken impression that it referred to the acquisition of a ticket for a single section.

04. The Finatec website presents all the information required by applicable legislation, allowing you to obtain the necessary information about ongoing projects. The information is made available for the period stipulated in the legislation. For an adequate clarification on the last question (Why do some documents stop being available after a while?), it would be necessary to obtain more precise data and information. It is important to clarify that the Transparency Portal maintains specific navigability criteria, with specific search functions for ongoing and completed projects, and users must be aware of the system’s usability requirements. This temporality of information, according to the status of the project, meets the legal provisions and the validity period of each specific project.