TCU bars new health partnerships with private companies due to weaknesses in contracts

The Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) decided, in the plenary session this Wednesday (27), that the Ministry of Health suspend new contracts within the so-called Partnerships for Productive Development (PDPs), which are agreements between public institutions and private companies to supply of medicines, vaccines and blood products.

The decision was taken after an audit highlighted weaknesses and a lack of objective criteria in the application of partnerships. The TCU pointed to the need to establish mechanisms for evaluating the effectiveness of contracts.

Until June 2022, more than R$26 billion had been allocated to PDPs by the Ministry of Health, covering 88 agreements in force. However, the TCU audit identified a series of weaknesses in this system.

One of the main issues raised by the rapporteur, Minister Benjamin Zymler, was the lack of objective criteria and evaluation parameters for defining strategic products for the Unified Health System (SUS). Furthermore, the audit highlighted the lack of adequate standards for the redistribution of demand between strategic products and identified problems in the procedures for purchasing medicines after the end of the PDPs.

Other problematic issues highlighted by the judge include the lack of transparency in relation to the process of selecting PDP projects, the lack of a regulatory deadline for the inclusion of public facilities in the health register and the lack of breakdown of technology transfer costs.

In light of the findings, the TCU issued a series of determinations, including the need for the Ministry of Health to comply with guidelines established in previous TCU decisions, such as verifying the choice of the private entity in public laboratories in accordance with constitutional principles.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Health must reformulate the rules that govern PDPs and the internal regulations of the entities involved, with the aim of establishing objective and transparent criteria for the selection and analysis of PDP project proposals.

The TCU audit was conducted by the Specialized Health Audit Unit (AudSaúde), which is part of the Secretariat for External Control of Sustainable Development (SecexDesenvolvimento).