MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian Social Security Minister resigns amid scandal

Lupi stepped down, although his name did not come up in the investigations

Carlos Lupi resigned Friday from his post as Brazil's Social Security Minister after meeting at the Palácio do Planalto with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, given the ongoing fraud investigation at the National Institute of Social Security (INSS). Although Lupi was not named in the enquiry, he stepped down, emphasizing his commitment to transparency and justice. His second-in-command, Wolney Queiroz, has been chosen as his successor.

 “I take this decision with the certainty that my name has not been cited at any time in the ongoing investigations [regarding] possible irregularities in INSS. I would like to emphasize that all the investigations have been supported, from the beginning, by all areas of the Social Security, by me, and by the control bodies of the Lula government. I hope that the investigations will follow their natural course, identify those responsible and punish, with rigor, those who used their functions to harm the working people,” wrote Lupi.

According to the Planalto, Lupi's exoneration and Wolney's appointment will be published in an extra edition of the Diário Oficial da União (Official Gazette - DOU). The change in command of the Welfare Ministry occurs one week after the Federal Police (PF) and the Office of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) deflagrated a joint operation that uncovered an alleged scheme of unauthorized deductions of associative salaries in INSS benefits.

The probe found that the irregularities dated back to 2019, during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, and continued in recent years.

”I will continue to closely follow and collaborate with the government so that, in the end, any and all resources that have been diverted from the path of our beneficiaries are returned in full. I would like to thank the more than 20,000 employees of INSS and the Ministry of Social Welfare, professionals that I have learned to admire even more in these little more than two years (...), men and women who sustain, with dedication, the largest social program in the Americas,” Lupi went on.

The case had already resulted in the exoneration of the then INSS President Alessandro Stefanutto and in the arrest of four agency high-ranking officials as well as a Federal Police officer stationed in São Paulo.

Opposition lawmakers filed a request last Friday for the creation of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) to investigate the INSS fraud. Pressured by the opposition, Lupi came to testify during the session of the Lower House's Welfare, Social Assistance, Childhood, Adolescence, and Family Committee on Tuesday, but his remaining at the Ministry's helm ended up unsustainable.

The PF reported having gathered indications of the existence of irregularities in part of about R$ 6.3 billion (US$ 1,11 billion, at the current exchange rate) that the collection of associative fees moved just between 2019 and 2024. In the following days, the CGU and the INSS itself made public the results of audits carried out since 2023, which also pointed out inconsistencies and problems related to the issue.

The INSS has now suspended all deductions while measures are being studied to compensate the victims, which Lula promised would happen. (Source: Agencia Brasil)