The () charges the return of more than R $ 140 million municipalities for alleged parliamentarians intended for.
Municipalities of Maranhão concentrate most of the money (R $ 120 million) that federal management seeks to recover. The values were calculated from 51 audits from Denasus, organ of the.
The findings indicate that the municipalities received more amendments than they should record in the fictional increase of consultations, exams and other SUS (Unified Health System) procedures. The grace ceiling indicated by parliamentarians is defined from this data.
Denasus’s largest collection of R $ 13.4 million is directed to Vitorino Freire (MA), a municipality that is from the federal deputy (União Brasil). He left the post of government minister of the government in April amid public works.
The audit states that the city did not prove the registered procedures, including more than 800,000 consultations declared in 2021. The municipality has about 30 thousand inhabitants.
The amount charged is close to half of all R $ 27 million passed on by the Ministry of Health to Vitorino Freire in 2024, a figure that includes parliamentary nominations.
The possibility of a crime involving the management of Vitorino Freire is determined by the Federal Police, who carried out in 2024 a. The agents assess whether the resources, including Juscelino amendments, were diverted to a company that would not have proven the execution of the services.
The audits also detected that part of the municipalities handed over to third parties, including people with no ties with the City Hall, passwords to access the system to record the data of SUS.
The former Secretary of Health of the Municipality of Bom Place (MA) told the ministry that he could not handle the registration system and that therefore made contact with Roberto Rodrigues Lima, who was already “known to the previous administration”.
Roberto Lima was on suspicion of entering false data into SUS systems to justify transfers to a series of municipalities. In the same year, he was in the Congress system as author of distribution requests of R $ 36.2 million in amendments to cities of Maranhão.
The report tried to find it by email and in phone contacts, but received no answers.
The second largest charge of Denasus, of R $ 10.3 million, is directed to Paulo Ramos (MA).
Among the reasons is an alleged non-justified transfer to the Center Med. The company is also investigated by the PF in a case taken to the Supreme Court after agents located dialogues in which a supposed hidden partner and federal deputy Cleber Verde (MDB-MA) would mention values of amendments to municipalities.
“I presented to the STF the information that I believe to be clarifying about the amendments mentioned,” he told the Sheet the deputy. Cleber Verde said the amendments “were sent to assist in the care and expansion of health actions in the municipalities mentioned”.
Center Med denied irregularities, said it does not participate in the insertion of SUS data and said it was regularly hired to provide materials.
The Ministry of Health’s findings were concentrated in Maranhão and were opened by request from the MPF (Federal Public Prosecution Service), which led to the subject after, in 2022.
The list of audits involving amendments was obtained by Sheet by the Law of Access to Information. The federal government states that R $ 12.19 million has already been returned. In other cases, the Ministry led to the collection to the Federal Court of Audit (TCU) or evaluates new arguments from the municipalities.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said it resumed face -to -face audits in 2023 and acts in conjunction with control bodies. “The total audited last year is in the order of $ 8 billion,” said the folder.
Of the 51 reports, 23 are from municipalities of Maranhão. As revealed the Sheet, Health, which could not prove to have done 720 thousand chest radiographs in the same year in hospital with only two devices working.
São Paulo is the second state with the most audits that resulted in federal funds return. The federal government tries to recover $ 1.8 million of five cities.
The alleged irregularities evaluated by the audits were mainly held from 2019 to 2022, when in the hands of Congress.
There are also cases, such as Nova Luzitania (SP), in which the ministry understood that the production was not proven of 2018 allowed the municipality to receive R $ 662 thousand in irregular funds of amendments in the following years.
Municipalities deny irregularities
Municipalities charged by the Ministry deny irregularities and say they have improved the process of registration of SUS data.
The City of Vitorino Freire said that the outpatient production questioned “effectively occurred” and cited high demand for the COVID-19 pandemic. The municipality still blames a failed outsourced company and says it returned to the Union R $ 4.6 million after agreement with the MPF.
In a statement, the MPF said the agreement does not prevent the union from seeking additional reimbursement.
Deputy Juscelino Filho said that the inquiry related to Operation Hygeia “does not keep any relationship” with its amendments and that it is up to the municipalities to perform the funds.
Caxias City Hall (MA) said there is still no decision on the amount charged by the audit and that it does not fully agree with the report. During the audit, the municipality said the Union was also responsible for overseeing the transfers. “Who authorizes the payment of these resources? They do not fall from the universe,” the municipal government told Denasus.
Already Lago dos Rodrigues (MA) stated that it has not yet been notified of the ministry’s collection and blamed the previous management for any irregularities. The other municipalities cited in the report did not comment.
