Government Identifies US$ 2.65 billion in Improper Social Expenditures

07/24/2018 - 12h07

The Federal Government has identified, from the second semester of 2016 through May of this year, R$ 10 billion (US$ 2.65 billion) in improper payments to beneficiaries of three social programs.

Based on this, it cancelled 5.7 million benefits - 5.2 million from the Family Stipend (Bolsa Família) and 478 Illness benefits and disability pensions.

The savings were employed to reduce the deficit in assistance programs.

Last year, federal expenses for the three programs totaled R$ 107.4 billion (US$ 28.4 billion).

The auditing was carried out by the Committee for the Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies, created in 2016 and composed of ministers from related control entities. Its mission is to comb through government programs with the objective of improving the quality of public expenditures.

The committee is also currently evaluating the Fies (student financing) program, defense insurance (a kind of temporary unemployment insurance for artisanal fisherman) and BPC (Continuous Provision Benefit). The expectation is that the audits under way will uncover more than R$ 20 billion (US$ 5.7 billion) in improprieties by 2020, according to governmental projections.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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