TCU opens procedures to monitor nine public companies in financial crisis

In November, the agency announced the creation of a working group responsible for analyzing the accounts of nine companies. The cases are now being processed in court, which has requested information from the government.

This decision comes after the publication of a report from the National Treasury which highlights the risks for public accounts due to the situation of nine public companies, including Correios, which is going through the worst financial crisis in its history.

The Treasury is monitoring the situation of nine non-financial state-owned enterprises that may need government assistance if they are unable to meet their financial needs. They are:

1. Email
2. Brazilian Mint
3. Companhia Docas do Ceará
4. Companhia Docas do Pará
5. Companhia Docas do Estado da Bahia
6. Companhia Docas do Rio de Janeiro
7. Companhia Docas do Rio Grande do Norte
8. Infrared
9. ENBBy

The working group will first require a tax and governance diagnosis of the nine companies most in difficulty, which could be extended to all 27 non-dependent public companies.

The TCU working group’s analysis will address five thematic axes:

• management
• innovation
• financial performance
• personnel management and recruitment
• computer science.

The idea is to broaden the scope of control beyond financial aspects, by integrating the dimensions of governance, operational experience, quality of management, factors which, according to the president of the TCU, are often at the origin of the financial difficulties of companies.

This working group must complement the control actions that the Court of Auditors carries out in Correios, such as the in-person audit to check possible irregularities in the management of the public company in recent years.