TCU participates in international seminar on expenditure review
By Secom / Serint
On September 2, Minister Antonio Anastasia participated in the International Seminar ¿Expenditure Review: Enhancing Fiscal Management for More Resilient Economies.¿
The opening ceremony was organized by the Secretariat for Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies and Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Planning and Budget (SMA/MPO) and included the participation of Simone Tebet, the Minister of Planning and Budget (MPO), Simone Tebet; Senator Confúcio Moura (MDB-RO); and Paola Martínez, the Head of Operations of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Brazil.
Experts from His Majesty's Treasury (United Kingdom), the Ministry of Finance of Portugal, the Netherlands Court of Audit, the National Treasury of South Africa, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank also participated in the event. The speakers shared experiences on public expenditure review to prioritize and optimize the allocation of funds.
Among the critical factors for achieving efficiency in public management, Minister Anastasia emphasized the lack of administrative continuity: "Without a culture of administrative continuity, it is impossible to achieve proper quality of expenditures, because waste is permanent."
Anastasia emphasized that a review of expenditures does not necessarily entail cuts. Rather, it involves qualifying spending and improving public services through the more efficient allocation of funds to meet targets and achieve desired results.
Simone Tebet, the Minister of Planning and Budget, stressed that evaluating and monitoring of public policies is a fundamental tool for ensuring that the established objectives effectively meet the population's needs and address the structural issues affecting Brazil¿s sustainable development. "Planning, reviewing expenditures, and managing public accounts will be essential. Through these measures we will be able to guarantee democracy, citizenship, and dignity for all Brazilian women and men," she stated.
In addition to materiality and social impact, the criteria for choosing public policies to undergo a negotiated expenditure review process take into account evaluations conducted by the specialized monitoring and evaluation bodies of the Executive Branch, as well as findings from public policy evaluation audits carried out by the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and the Brazilian Office of the Comptroller General (CGU). Elaine Xavier, representative of the Federal Budget Secretariat (SOF), highlighted this point in her presentation.
Auditors Rafael Encinas, from AudFiscal (Audit Department for Budget, Taxation and Fiscal Management), and Lucieni Pereira, from AudDigital (Audit Department for the Integration of Data, Methods and Technologies for Oversight), participated in the international seminar and attended Minister Anastasia¿s presentation during the opening ceremony.
Minister Vital do Rêgo emphasized the importance of TCU auditors¿ participation in the discussions about expenditure reviews. This matter is included in the Brazilian budget cycle under Constitutional Amendment No. 109/2021, which focuses on fiscal reform and improving of public spending. The reform elevated the evaluation of public policies to a constitutional status and began requiring the Multi-Year Plan, the Budget Guidelines Law, and the Annual Budget Law to observe the results of the monitoring and evaluation of public policies where applicable.
AudDigital and AudFiscal discuss expenditure review with experts
On September 3, following the international seminar, a Deepening Expenditure Review Meeting was held at the IDB headquarters with the participation of international experts, federal bodies, and representatives from several states. Lucieni Pereira and Rafael Encinas represented AudDigital and AudFiscal in the expert panel discussion.
The inclusion of public policy in the expenditure review process is one of the topics covered in the self-assessment questionnaire that informs the preparation of the Report on the Oversight of Government Policies and Programs (RePP). The Secretariat for External Control of Strategic Information and Innovation (Seinc), in collaboration with the General Secretariat for External Control (Segecex), is developing the RePP for the 2026-2027 budget cycle through AudDigital. Submitting the RePP to the Joint Budget Committee (CMO) is provided for in the LDO and complies with the Court's own directive.
AudDigital¿s participation in the SMA/MPO and IDB events resulted from a partnership with the SecexEnergia Institutional Relations Advisory Team, which coordinated engagement with the organizing bodies.
