The Federal Audit Court (TCU) department found evidence of irregular payments in the Truck Driver and Taxi Driver Allowance. In short, these benefits were created by the government in 2022 to help pay for fuel, which has increased significantly.

According to the technical area, the evidence “may represent a loss” total of R$ 3.7 million, if only the payment of the second installment is taken into account. If the 6 installments are accounted for, the fraud could reach up to R$ 11.298 million.

The case went to trial on Wednesday, November 30th.

Based on this procedure, the ministers decided that the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, responsible for aid, should review within 15 days the signs of irregular payments identified by the court's technical area.

Furthermore, the ministry needs to refine the exclusion criteria for programs. The objective is to avoid gaps in benefit payments for people who do not need the benefits.

Although the value is considered low in relation to the federal budget, the technical part states that immediate action by the public authorities is necessary to correct the flaws that may be making these irregular payments possible.

To give you an idea, there are people who receive benefits who do not meet the programs' eligibility requirements. This is said because they have a canceled CPF or income from public service payrolls above 10 minimum wages.

Only until the payment of the 2nd installment did the audit find that 1,443 people from Taxi Assistance may have received irregular assistance from the Government. This corresponds to 0.5% of the total number of beneficiaries, in the order of R$ 2.9 million. Meanwhile, 456 truck drivers receive the irregular payment, worth R$ 880 thousand.

Furthermore, the audit revealed “failures in the 'targeting' of benefits that led to questionable payments from the point of view of the program target for 16,921 beneficiaries of taxi assistance. This value represents 6.1% of the total, which means R$ 33.8 million in transfers. Meanwhile, 9,131 truck driver beneficiaries, 2.8% of the beneficiaries, received the amount irregularly, totaling R$ 17.9 million.

Considering the total of 6 installments, the amounts unduly paid could reach R$ 11.298 million. The aid payment was R$ 1,000 between July and December 2022. The benefit is expected to reach around 872,547 self-employed truck drivers and 352,596 taxi drivers.

In a note, the Ministry of Labor and Pensions reported that it is working “so that the benefits provided for in Constitutional Amendment No. 123 are paid transparently and only to workers who meet the criteria introduced by the amendment“.

Furthermore, the folder completes that, “According to information from control bodies, it blocked a group of 6,242 benefits as a precaution. Information must be reprocessed to verify benefit eligibility“.

Truck Driver Assistance will only have one more payment in 2022. The last deposit takes place on December 10th for those approved by Dataprev and registered in “Active” status at the MTE. See when payments took place in 2022:

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