Motta promises to urgently schedule an 'anti-fraud package' at INSS next week

The Speaker of the House, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), promised to schedule, next week, the urgency of bills that aim to combat fraud at the National Institute of Social Security , the INSS. In a statement on social media this Friday the 16th, the head of the House said he had informed the leaders of the vote and that the idea is to jointly analyze the proposals that deal with the topic, in a kind of “anti-fraud package”.

The intention is to create mechanisms that prevent new practices of fraudulent discounts on social security benefits. One of the proposals that should be analyzed is authored by Congressman Sidney Leite (PSD-AM), which revokes parts of the 1991 law that allowed discounts on benefits.

Once approved, the urgency request allows the proposal to be taken directly to the plenary, without going through the thematic committees.

The mobilization comes after the Federal Police revealed a scheme that diverted at least 6.3 billion reais through undue discounts on pensions and retirements. The frauds have been going on since 2019, the first year of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, and involved associations that registered beneficiaries with the help of false signatures to make the deductions from their payroll.

The scandal led to the resignation of the president of the INSS, Alessandro Stefanutto , and the Minister of Social Security Carlos Lupi (PDT). The PDT member was not investigated for the case, but his permanence in the government became unsustainable after a report by Jornal Nacional, on TV Globo , revealed that he had been informed of the illegal discounts back in 2023.

Last week, the federal government began making the consultation system available so that policyholders can check irregular discounts and request reimbursement. Since then, around 1.34 million people have already disputed the charges and requested a refund, according to the most recent INSS report.

Motta's effort to vote on the projects against fraud at the institute occurs in conjunction with pressure from the opposition to set up a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry in the Chamber on the case.

When the request to create the CPI was presented at the end of April, the leaders of the House defended giving priority to the demand and suggested that the list of requests be processed. Motta considered, however, that these parliamentary investigations consume a lot of time and work from the deputies, in addition to having high financial costs, with demands for personnel and travel.

But the pressure did not abate. To avoid the backlog of requests, opposition deputies joined forces with senators and organized the creation of a joint committee, bringing together members of both houses.

As reported by CartaCapital , the president of Congress Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) made it clear to Planalto that it was inevitable to install the collegiate body , whose request should be read on May 27.

The Minister of Institutional Relations, Gleisi Hoffmann , stated this Friday that the installation of a CPMI to investigate the INSS scandal could delay the compensation of victims . Despite this, PT members of parliament – ​​including the leader of the bench in the Senate, Rogério Carvalho (SE) – signed the request to open the joint committee.