TCU audits President Lula’s corporate card expenses

The Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) started to carry out, last week, an audit of the expenses of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) with the use of the government’s corporate card. The opening of the analysis was determined after a request by federal deputy Kim Kataguiri (União Brasil-SP) and will be reported by Minister Jhonathan de Jesus.

A People’s Gazettethe TCU confirmed the procedure this Tuesday (20) and said that the documents have not yet been made public, and that there is no deadline for the conclusion of the audit to be taken to the plenary of the Court.

The request for analysis of expenses came after a report by Crusoé magazine revealed that Lula spent R$ 12.1 million on the corporate card in the first four months of this year alone. The survey, he says, was carried out based on information from the Transparency Portal of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU).

The TCU states that the process was opened after a “request by the Financial Inspection and Control Commission of the Chamber of Deputies to carry out an audit to investigate possible irregularities in the use of the Corporate Card of the Presidency of the Republic”, and will be carried out by the audit unit specializing in governance and innovation.

Kataguiri’s request was approved by the commission on May 24, in which he states that “according to the constitutional principle of transparency and the importance of controlling public spending, it is essential to ensure the correct use of resources and compliance with the principles of fiscal responsibility”.