Prosecutor’s Office Opens Proceedings on Delay in Disclosure of Covid-19 Cases

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) opened extrajudicial proceedings to investigate the Ministry of Health’s delay in releasing data on the novel coronavirus in Brazil.

Since Friday’s report, the federal government has failed to disclose the total number of deaths from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, data that has vanished from the official website on the disease. The reports also began to be released at 10 PM rather than at 7PM in the past.

The case even led Brazil to be temporarily excluded from the Johns Hopkins University ranking, which updates the coronavirus data around the world in real time and has become a world reference. The university uses official data collected from each country.

The Prosecutor’s Office requested explanations from the Ministry of Health regarding the technical grounds for its actions. It also wants to understand the emergency that led to the immediate removal of the death toll from the Covid-19 victims’ panel and which technical grounds require a review of deaths from the disease.

The requests were forwarded to the interim Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, with a 72-hour deadline for reply.

The notification is signed by prosecutors Célia Regina Souza Delgado and Edilson Vitorelli Diniz Lima, of the Chamber of Social Rights and Inspection of Administrative Acts. At this stage, the Prosecutor’s Office conducts investigations after detecting evidence of illicit practices. In opening the proceedings, the prosecutors highlighted excerpts from the Access to Information Law (LAI) on the obligation of transparency on public data and the penalties for omission, as well as the law on administrative misconduct.

The Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation occurs in parallel to a request from the Federal Public Defender, which petitioned a federal court in São Paulo to compel the government to publish the data. On another front, opposition legislators plan to take action in the Supreme Court to ensure the transparency of data on the pandemic.

The omission of data on deaths from the novel coronavirus is due to the fact that they fail to reflect the current situation in the country, according to the government. The Planalto’s strategy is to disclose only the daily figures, while disregarding the cumulative data since the start of the pandemic.

“The disclosure of 24-hour data allows us to monitor the country’s current reality and define appropriate strategies for serving the population. The case curve shows the situations as most critical scenarios, the reversals of scenarios and the need for preparation,” said President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday, June 6th.

In addition to the report, the website containing the figures for Covid-19 in Brazil was offline overnight between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. The website displayed only that it was under maintenance. However, after going back online, it no longer displays the cumulative data, broken down by state, nor does it permit data to be downloaded.

Carlos Wizard, an advisor and possible appointee as Secretary of Science, Technology and Strategic Supplies, said that states and municipalities had been inflating the number of Covid-19 deaths in order to obtain financial benefits, but he failed to provide any evidence to support this. According to him, the information had been passed on to him by a military intelligence team from the Ministry of Health. Wizard denied that the Planalto is trying to “unearth the dead” by revising criteria on deaths by Covid-19.

The decision was criticized by the National Council of Health Secretaries, which perceived an authoritarian, insensitive, inhumane and unethical attempt to deny the credibility of deaths caused by the coronavirus. “It will not prosper. We and Brazilian society will not forget them and neither the tragedy that’s befalling the nation,” said Alberto Beltrame, the organization’s president.

Coronavirus cases may be audited by the TCU

The Federal Audit Court (TCU), in partnership with the State Audit Courts (TCEs), are discussing the responsibility of consolidating Covid-19 daily data. Opposition legislators and prosecutors from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office are expected to file legal proceedings against the delay in data disclosure.

The feasibility of taking over the task has already been discussed by TCU Judge Bruno Dantas and the President of the Association of Members of the Brazilian Audit Courts (ATRICON), Fábio Nogueira.

The plan is for the state audit courts to notify the state health departments in order to collect information on the development of the disease by 6 PM each day. From then on, these data would be forwarded to the TCU for consolidation and subsequent disclosure.

“The government has an obligation to society to provide accurate information in time for health measures and decisions to be taken, considering the country’s real situation,” said Bruno Dantas.

“State courts may submit these requests to state secretariats. It is a joint effort. Ideally, the government should overcome its shortcomings, since the disclosure of information is one of the Constitution’s five principles. If the Ministry were to disclose daily as it has been doing, this would not be necessary. But the moment the statistics vanish, people must have access to the information.”

Fábio Nogueira said it is not a matter of taking on the government’s role, but rather of ensuring the rendering of a fundamental service to society. “We are analyzing how this can be accomplished. The TCEs are available to cooperate”.

In Congress, several parties are expected to lodge proceedings against the government in the Federal Supreme Court.

To circumvent the delay in the disclosure of data on the disease by the government, the leader of the opposition in the Chamber of Deputies, Deputy André Figueiredo also said that on Monday he will submit a bill to order that the numbers of infections and deaths by Covid-19 be reported by the state secretariats to the Chamber of Deputies while they are reported to the government.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo