Once again, news of a billion-dollar fraud that could be avoided/reduced with the implementation of our new National Identity Card (CIN) Identification System. We definitely need to structure this, which is the largest Citizenship project in the country.
CIN, OUR GREATEST CITIZENSHIP INSTRUMENT.
Farmácia Popular Fraud: Find out if your name was used by scammers
According to an investigation by RBS TV, the scheme used the registration of pharmacies that had already closed but remained active in the Federal Government’s system; scammers appropriated CPFs in the fraud.
Scammers used the Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas (CPF) in a fraud scheme in the Farmácia Popular program. The scheme, shown on Jornal Nacional, registered medications in the name of people who never requested them, causing a loss of R$ 2.5 billion to public coffers between 2015 and 2020.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health claims that the current administration “has resumed control and monitoring measures of the Farmácia Popular Program by deactivating pharmacies that showed signs of irregularities. Thus, after monitoring actions, the mentioned company has been deactivated from the Farmácia Popular Program since 2023.”
How the fraud worked
A network of selling and renting National Register of Legal Entities (CNPJ) numbers of closed pharmacies fueled the scheme. After payment, the scammers benefited from the resources of the Farmácia Popular program, a Federal Government initiative.
Even after closing, the pharmacy’s CNPJ continued to receive funds from the program, with up to 100% of the Government’s investment in medications. It is unclear how the scammers obtained people’s CPF numbers.
Since the program’s launch in 2004, more than 3,500 investigations have been opened by the Federal Government to assess potential fraud. In the Public Ministry, an investigation is carried out every two days. In Caxias do Sul alone, Federal Prosecutor Sônia Nische is investigating 300 complaints involving pharmacies across Brazil.
“The numbers related to Farmácia Popular are very alarming, and the impression is that the oversight does not cover the entire network of participating pharmacies,” she said.
Fraud affected residents of Rio Grande do Sul
The report had access to a list of more than 500 residents from across the state whose registration was used by scammers. According to the government system, 1,300 medications were supposedly withdrawn from a ‘ghost’ pharmacy, which no longer exists, in Planaltina, in the Federal District. The address, where the establishment was located, is now a clothing store and is over 1,800 km from Rio Grande do Sul.
The Ministry of Health claims that the establishment received R$ 1.3 million from Farmácia Popular between June 2022 and October 2023, even though it closed in 2021.
The Union of Auditors of the Unified Health System (Unasus) denounces that the number of auditors is decreasing every year. João Paulo Martins Viana, Deputy Director of Communication for Unasus, says, “Today we don’t have more than ten staff members doing this job. For 31,000 pharmacies, a R$ 5.4 billion budget, the budget doubled. The number of pharmacies increased. And the number of staff has decreased drastically.”
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said it had disqualified 286 pharmacies showing signs of irregularities since 2023 and is in talks with the Federal Pharmacy Council to improve control mechanisms for Farmácia Popular. It also claims, in response to the union’s complaints, that it currently has 455 staff in the audit department. Last year, they carried out 783 inspection activities.
Complete Article – https://g1.globo.com/rs/rio-grande-do-sul/noticia/2024/04/08/fraude-no-farmacia-popular-descubra-se-seu-nome-foi-utilizado-por-golpistas.ghtml
