[vc_row el_id=”post”][vc_column width=”2/3″ el_class=”sideLeftPost”][vc_raw_html el_id=”postImgDestaque”]JTNDZGl2JTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJpbnNlcnRJbnNpZGUlMjIlM0UlM0MlMkZkaXYlM0U=[/vc_raw_html][vc_column_text]The Data Science Study Group at IDP, led by Prof. Claudiomar Matias Rolim Filho (EPPGG currently working at IPEA), in partnership with data scientist Leonardo Sales, conducted research cross-referencing publicly available data in order to identify potential improper payments of emergency aid offered by the Federal Government to address the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aim was to assess whether there were improper payments of emergency aid. To this end, civil servants from six states of the Federation, only from the Executive Branch, were analyzed, using their full name and CPF (Brazilian taxpayer identification number).
It was concluded that 5830 public servants (once again, from only six states and only from the Executive Branch) were receiving emergency aid.
Furthermore, as a criterion for High Income, using publicly available data from the Superior Electoral Court's website, the incomes and CPF numbers of former candidates in the 2016 and 2018 elections with declared assets exceeding R$ 500 were cross-referenced. 810 former candidates were found. The total sum of these candidates' assets, declared to the TSE, is R$ 1,19 billion.
Since it is not possible to identify, in a preliminary analysis, whether a given public servant or former candidate is, in fact, receiving undue payment or has had their CPF (Brazilian taxpayer ID) cloned, the researchers decided to suppress the list of names, presenting only the results.
The researchers decided to release access to the research methodology, enabling it to be replicated or applied on a larger scale by state or federal public oversight bodies with access to data that is not publicly available. The competent authorities have the capacity to apply a similar methodology and cross-reference it with the complete database of municipal, state, and federal public servants to identify fraud.
Below is a summary of what was discussed, proposed, and implemented:
THE SEARCH
Law No. 13982/2020 amended Law No. 8742/1993, which defines parameters for characterizing people in situations of social vulnerability. Furthermore, it creates a financial benefit to assist families that meet these criteria. In summary, the program eligibility rules include:
- Not having formal employment (intended for self-employed workers with informal income, who are not public employees, including temporary ones, and are not holding an elected office).
- Being unemployed or working as a self-employed individual (MEI - microentrepreneur).
- Being an individual contributor to Social Security.
- Being an informal worker registered in the CadÚnico (Single Registry)
- Teenage mothers (under 18 years old)
Moreover, do not have access to the benefit quem:
- Belongs to a family with a monthly income per person greater than half the minimum wage (this year, R$ 522,50) or a total monthly family income (everything the family receives) above three minimum wages (this year, R$ 3.135).
- Are you receiving unemployment benefits?
- Are you receiving social security benefits, welfare benefits, or federal income transfer benefits, with the exception of Bolsa Família?
- Received taxable income above the ceiling of R$ 28.559.70 in 2018, according to the Income Tax return.
It is important to keep in mind that the aid only addresses income flow variables (salaries) and not of income stock (i.e., assets)
To identify possible irregular payments, data from the Emergency Aid program was cross-referenced with:
- Based on the assets declared by candidates in the 2016 and 2018 elections.
- From federal public servants
- From public servants from the Executive from the states of DF, MA, PE, PI and SC
As evidenced, the law is not explicit regarding the beneficiary's assets. In any case, We understand that possessing very high net worth is an indirect factor contributing to non-compliance with the conditionality of "vulnerable individuals."It is unlikely that citizens with millionaire assets would meet all of these requirements, especially those related to annual income.
Regarding data on public employees, there is a clear restriction, since being a public employee means having a stable source of income.
The data from Emergency Aid were obtained in open data section from the Transparency Portal.
The data of patrimony were obtained from the electoral data repository of Superior Electoral Court, available hereThese are the ones relating to Candidates e Assets Declared, for the 2016 and 2018 elections.
The data on employment with the public service were obtained from the transparency portals of the Union and the States, available here (Union, DF, MA, PE, PI, SC)
The five states mentioned were not chosen at random. They are the only states where the Executive Branch makes available, in manipulable data, Not only the list of employees with their respective salaries, but also the CPF (Brazilian taxpayer ID) subscript (6 digits of the CPF, from the 4th to the 9th). Although all other State Executive Branches make the monthly payroll list of employees available on their Transparency Portals, some provide it in PDF format (making data manipulation impossible) or provide it in a manipulable format, but without the CPF (which also makes manipulation impossible, given that manually differentiating homonyms is ineffective). No Judicial Branch provides the list of employees with CPF, and most provide the data in PDF spreadsheets.
METHODOLOGY
The purpose of the crossbreeding was to identify Candidates with high declared net worth to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) in the 2016 or 2018 elections. e public employees who are receiving Emergency AidAdditional details:
- To compare the records between two data sources (Emergency Aid and TSE or Emergency Aid and server databases), we searched for the coincidence, at the same time, of the Full Name and CPF Substrato fields. (6 digits of the CPF, from the 4th to the 9th).
- As a criterion of High IncomeIn the case of data from the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), we consider declared assets to be those exceeding R$ 500..
- ValidationAlthough rare, it is possible for two people to have exactly the same name and the same 6-digit sequence, in the same position, on their CPF (Brazilian taxpayer identification number). A small margin of error must be considered as a result.
- In the specific case of the candidates, it was possible to confirm all cases. After identifying the cases through cross-referencing, all records were confirmed, one by one, on the Federal Government's Transparency Portal, through a query via data api. The Results can still be validated. based on the candidate's CPF number (which is fully reported in the TSE databases) in the general search of Transparency PortalThe respective declared assets can be verified in the repository. DivulgaCandContas, from the TSE or on portals that replicate this data, such as the Estadão Politics.
RESULTS
A) High-Net-Worth Beneficiary
- 810 coincidencesThis indicates that 810 candidates (in the 2016 or 2018 elections) with assets declared to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) greater than R$ 500 are, according to the latest available data, receiving emergency aid.
- These 810 beneficiaries have a combined declared net worth of R$ 1,19 billion, as declared to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).
- Below are the 10 states with the highest number of cases:
| UF | Number of cases |
| SP | 179 |
| MG | 140 |
| GO | 57 |
| PA | 51 |
| PR | 49 |
| MT | 39 |
| BA | 36 |
| RS | 36 |
| RJ | 29 |
| SC | 27 |
B) SERVERS
- 5830 cases, of which:
- 40 in the Union
- 532 in Maranhão
- 514 in the Federal District
- 763 in Pernambuco
- 3136 in Piauí
- 845 in Santa Catarina
Conclusion
Through a simple search, it was possible to find 5.830 public servants possibly receiving emergency aid. This means a flow of 3.5 million reais per month, 10.5 million reais in three months, to people who are not eligible (and who virtually do not need) the aid.
Our research focused on only six states of the federation, only on the Executive Branch, using only the CPF (Brazilian taxpayer identification number) as a basis, and only through open data. It can be assumed that the number of findings would be much higher if we compared the CPF numbers of all public servants, from all branches of government, in all states of the Federation (information that oversight bodies can legally obtain for investigation).
Furthermore, we understand that adopting heritage criteria can also improve the program's focus. center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}” el_class=”postCTA”][vc_column][themeum_action alignment=”left” title=”STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?” title_style=”customstyle” title_heading=”h2″ title_size=”20″ title_color=”#ffffff” title_weight=”800″ title_margin=”53px 0 0″ title_padding=”0″ btn_position=”btnright” btntext=”CONTACT US” btnurl=”/contact/” btntype=”white” btnsize=”btn-lg”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
