Ministry of Health wasted almost 2 million vaccines donated by the US, at a cost of R$ 1 million, says TCU

The Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) found that the Ministry of Health, during the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), wasted 1.9 million doses of vaccine against Covid-19 that were donated by the government of the States. United in 2021.

The immunizers had a close expiry date (on December 31, 2021) and, according to the TCU, only about 260,000 doses were distributed. The rest (approximately 1.9 million) were incinerated after the expiration date.

In addition to wasting immunizers, which could have been distributed to the states and applied to the population in the fight against Covid-19, the government still had to pay almost R$ 1 million in this process (between transport and incineration of vaccines , for example).

The information is contained in a process that is being processed by the TCU based on a representation presented by a group of federal deputies. The process was judged on March 1st and approved by the plenary of the TCU.

According to the report by Minister Vital do Rêgo, rapporteur for the process, “the different failures in the lack of planning and/or strategy for the distribution of donated immunizers generated costs in the amount of BRL 993,034.16, which must be characterized as damage to the treasury” .

In the understanding of the TCU, the doses were donated and sent to Brazil without enough time for distribution throughout the country. Despite this, the technical area of ​​the Ministry of Health did not make the reservations due at the time and allowed the government to accept the donation and bear the costs of transporting (and eventually discarding) the immunizers.

In addition, the folder team also would not have established a special distribution strategy to ensure that the doses are sent in time to be used.

“The MS [Ministério da Saúde] accepted the donation of 2,187,300 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines, with a very short expiry date (less than three months) and without defining a strategy for use in a timely manner, disregarding the period that would be spent to settle bureaucratic issues and processing and import techniques, as well as the time required for distribution to states and effective availability in vaccination units. This led to the expiration and disposal of almost all immunizers, generating expenses of almost R$ 1 million, with transport, customs clearance, storage and incineration, without bringing benefits to the Brazilian population”, said the TCU.

Now, the Court wants those responsible for this waste to be summoned to reimburse the public coffers.

Rosana Leite de Melo, then extraordinary secretary for Combating Covid-19, and Danilo de Souza Vasconcelos, then program director at the secretariat, would be responsible for signing the order accepting the donation of vaccines “with no time to carry out the necessary procedures to receipt and distribution of vaccines, with the knowledge that there would be air transport costs from the US to Brazil, in addition to storage and customs clearance, when they should have expressed their opposition to the donation ”, according to the TCU.

On the other hand, Ridauto Lúcio Fernandes, then Director of the Health Logistics Department (DLOG), is cited as responsible for signing the agreements to formalize the acceptance of the donation with delivery forecast for the second week of November, “when there was no time skilled for all stages of the logistics chain”, according to TCU.

TCU ministers decided to give 15 days for the three to present their defenses to the Court or voluntarily reimburse the public coffers in R$ 993,034.16.

In the case file at the Court, there is an order by Rosana Leite de Melo of January 2, 2022, after the expiry date of the vaccine doses, in which she justifies the reason for the waste. She lists the “delays in the delivery and release of the vaccine” as reasons for this.

“According to the order of the Extraordinary Secretariat for Combating Covid-19 (Secovid), dated 1/2/2022, authored by the then secretary Rosana Leite de Melo, due to delays in the delivery and release of the vaccine, two months passed from the demonstration to the availability of doses for shipment, a period in which the scenario in Brazil would have changed considerably with a notable advance in vaccination. Thus, despite efforts to allocate the vaccines, both in the national territory and for use in other countries, success was not achieved in the use of the total doses, which could no longer be used due to their expiration date”, reported the TCU.

A CNN tries to contact those cited by the TCU in search of an official position on the case. If there is a response, this text will be updated.