The Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) and the Federal Police carried out this Thursday (2) an operation to combat fraud in the resources of the Unified Health System (SUS) of Maranhão.

The operation fulfills 11 search and seizure warrants in the municipalities of Pedreiras, Bacabal, Lago do Junco and Lago dos Rodrigues, in addition to the warrants for the seizure of assets, the lifting of banking secrecy, the suspension of the right to exercise a public function and to participate in tenders and sign contracts.

In the case of the municipality of Pedreiras, the public SUS systems register 540,600 extractions (dental extractions) in 2021, figures incompatible with the number of inhabitants of the municipality, which has a population of 39,000.

The CGU has identified, as in Operation Quebra Ossos, the same person in charge of registering the requests in the Budgetary Indication System (SINDORC) of the Chamber of Deputies, treated as potential endowments of parliamentary amendments.

In 2022 alone, R$16,835,972.67 was requested for a temporary increase in Pedreiras Health, both for medium and high complexity actions and for primary care actions.

On this basis, the CGU began to analyze contracts in the health sector in the municipality of Pedreiras, which resulted in the verification of irregularities in the award of contracts and overcharged payments to a company that used a partner “orange” to hide the true resource allocation.

Regarding the hiring of the company, the CGU found that: the preliminary investigation of prices was not carried out adequately; the auction was conducted in person rather than electronically, without justification and with evidence of collusion between the bidders; and overbilling of BRL 500,155.00 only on invoices issued to the Municipality of Pedreiras.

O g1 has contacted the town halls involved in the operation and is awaiting a position on this subject.