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The Public Ministry of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) presented a representation requesting the investigation and the adoption of measures for the alleged loss of R $ 290 million, due to the validity of the covid-19 tests acquired by the government of Jair Bolsonaro. (no party).
The newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo” revealed that 6.86 million tests acquired by the Ministry of Health are no longer valid until January 2021 and have not yet been distributed to the public network.
“As expected, the cause of this inertia and waste for no one is a secret. It is the ineptitude of the federal government, especially the Ministry of Health -whose minister is not in the area-, with regard to planning and distribution logistics for the public health network, as well as the necessary measures for the application of the tests, ”says an extract from the resolution signed by the deputy attorney general Lucas Rocha Furtado, whom the Twitter had access.
“In view of the above, this representative of the Public Ministry in the Federal Court of Accounts requires that the Court, for the aforementioned reasons, decide on the adoption of the necessary measures to determine possible losses to the treasury, in the amount of R $ 290 million, provision of public health services in Brazil due to the expiration date of millions of tests acquired by the Ministry of Health for the diagnosis of the new coronavirus ”, he adds.
The deputy attorney also highlights “the enormous imminent damage, not only for the treasury, but above all for public health in Brazil.”
For the newspaper, the Ministry of Health affirmed that it only delivers the tests when there are requests from the states. Strand tests are of the RT-PCR type.
To date, the Unified Health System (SUS) has applied five million tests of this type. As the report showed, the government is trying to extend the expiration date of the products to prevent them from being discarded from next month.
To do this, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) must authorize a possible renewal of the validity of the exams.
According to agency sources, the ministry must demonstrate that the test remains effective and safe after the eight-month expiration date. The product, which must be stored at 20ºC, is deposited by the ministry in Guarulhos (SP).
Bolsonaro blames states and municipalities
Asked by a follower, if the information about the stranded tests was appropriate, President Jair Bolsonaro blamed the states and municipalities.
“All the material sent to states and municipalities. If any state / municipality did not use it, they must present their reasons (sic),” Bolsonaro told the follower on social networks.
Vice President Hamilton Mourão was also asked, this time by a journalist, if the situation would not be a problem for the government, but he avoided a direct response.
“We must seek clarification there with the Ministry of Health. I have no knowledge of that. It is not a matter that happens to me, I have nothing to declare about it. It has to do with them there,” he said.
Senator enters representation
After the repercussions, Senator Fabiano Contarato (Rede-ES) decided to enter the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) to represent the Ministry of Health.
It requests that the eventual responsibility of federal, state or municipal public agents be acquired in the acquisition and management of covid-19 tests with resources from the Federal Government, as well as evaluating the conformity of the acts practiced during the state of public calamity resulting from the pandemic, in light of the principles of legality and effectiveness.
The Ministry of Health must immediately explain this attack on public health, a fact aggravated by the arrival of the second wave of the pandemic. The government threw public money into the trash by not using the purchased tests and contributed to the spread of the disease, leaving the population unprotected. “Contarato says.
Coronavirus cases
Brazil has reached 6,070,419 cases of covid-19 and 169,197 deaths from the disease since the start of the pandemic, according to figures from the media consortium of which the Twitter It is part of.
The country is the third most affected by the pandemic, only behind the United States (12,379,135 cases) and India (with 9,139,865 cases), according to a survey by Johns Hopkins University.
