An unprecedented audit by the Court of Auditors of the State of São Paulo (TCE-SP) on the payment of state and São Paulo councilors showed that these resources go, for the most part, to works and services carried out without a work plan, which makes it impossible to track whether the money was spent as promised.
In the special audit, which looked at 66 amendments from 2023 to 2025 to city halls and philanthropic entities, in addition to works carried out without adequate bidding, the TCE’s technical staff found amendments paid to entities controlled by relatives of the parliamentarians who nominated them and signs of overbilling.
The state deputies who authored the amendments stated that they were unaware of the results of the TCE-SP inspection and promised to take action. The city halls that returned contact from the Sheet stated that they were not notified by the control body or denied irregularities.
Pix amendments are transferred to city halls without the need for them to sign specific agreements with the state government. They are in the class.
At the federal level, investigations of misuse of purpose related to these expenses, with decisions by the minister reaching last year.
In São Paulo, to prepare a diagnosis on transparency, traceability and regularity of expenses, as determined by the STF, the TCE selected amendments based on a risk analysis, among almost 2,000 paid amendments, and prepared the sample with 66 transfers to 59 city halls, which totaled R$52 million. Around 30% of this amount was made up of municipal transfers – from cities that pay Pix amendments from councilors to social organizations.
Based on the previous survey, the scrutiny went from the parliamentary appointment to the end of the service, which included field inspections. The period in focus was 2024, including amendments indicated in 2023 and paid services in 2025.
The cases that most caught the auditors’ attention were five instances of signs of overpricing or overpricing and four of conflict of interests, with beneficiaries of amendments linked to parliamentarians.
One of them was an amendment worth R$300,000 indicated by state deputy Guto Zacarias (Missão) for the purchase of ballistic vests for the GCM (Municipal Civil Guard) of São Caetano do Sul, in Greater São Paulo. According to the report, the price record minutes used for the purchase covered vests and capes, but the capes were not delivered, which resulted in an overpricing of R$42,000.
The deputy, at Sheetsaid he would demand explanations. “I am the deputy who allocated the most amendments to public safety and I want to know all the details of every cent sent,” he said. He sent a copy of the letters made to the Public Ministry and Alesp (Legislative Assembly), after contacting the reporter, to request action. The city council stated that the purchase was regular.
In another case, the amendment came from state deputy Dani Alonso (PL), for R$300,000, to renovate a school court in Mineiros do Tietê. Although the money had been released, the work had no work plan and, when inspectors went to the school, they saw that it was at a standstill.
The deputy stated that she does not follow the step-by-step execution of each amendment, but rather the completion of the works and that, when there are notes from control bodies, she seeks information. “In this specific case, we will seek clarification about the strike,” said Dani Alonso. The city hall did not comment.
In Santa Isabel, the city hall received R$350,000 from deputy Jorge do Carmo (PT) for the construction of a bridge on the Diniz Alberto Lopes road. The bridge was built without a basic project, through an in-person auction and without even being included in the city’s budget. For the TCE, the practices also indicate irregular expenses.
Santa Isabel city hall also did not respond. Jorge do Carmo was contacted by phone at his office, by email and via the PT leadership at Alesp, but was not located.
Among the transfers made to relatives of parliamentarians, one of the cases highlighted by the TCE was that of Sorocaba councilor Fábio Simoa (Republicans). According to the organization, he indicated an amendment of R$105,000 for a social entity managed by relatives of another parliamentarian in the city. Reynaldinho (PSD), from Arujá, did the same, with a transfer of R$309,800 to an entity chaired by his son, according to the audit. .
A Sheet He reached out to both parliamentarians via phone calls to their offices and email, but received no response.
Throughout the 66 amendments that went through the X-ray, the auditors also found works with inflated price sheets, vehicles purchased by city halls that were parked in yards and entities that were supposed to provide care for pets, but were closed.
In addition to individual cases, the TCE identified a structural flaw in the model: when receiving extra resources without agreements with the government, the resources generally go to the cities’ common accounts, used for funding expenses, which makes tracking impossible.
For the body, the irregularities found result from “systemic failures in transparency, governance and insufficient performance by internal control bodies”.
Of the 66 amendments inspected, 58 were for activities without a work plan, which makes any monitoring difficult to verify whether what the money was supposed to be used for was actually done. Furthermore, city halls do not have internal control systems to monitor their own expenses nor areas on the transparency portal to show the population how much in amendments the municipality received and how it spent.
When notifying the cities, the TCE prepared a manual for São Paulo municipalities to correctly deal with this type of resource, highlighting that irregular spending can result in the rejection of the mayor’s financial statements and, consequently, ineligibility.
