The Brazilian government and the institutions that oversee federal spending formalized a partnership, January 20, to ensure that the country’s largest income transfer program, the Family Grant, actually gets money into the hands of the poorest segments of the population.
According to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, overseeing the Family Grant program, as proposed by the Minister of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation, Patrus Ananias, is positive and healthy.
Terms of cooperation were signed between the Ministry of Social Development and the Public Interest Defense Ministry (MPF), five state Public Interest Defense Ministries, the Federal Controller-General’s Office (CGU), and the Federal Accounting Court (TCU).
The partnership provides for the exchange of information, training activities, and the formulation of new monitoring instruments.
In conjunction, the institutions will form the Public Oversight Network for the Family Grant, which is part of the Zero Hunger program.
Government data indicate that the program already reaches over 6.5 million Brazilian homes.
The goal is to reach all families with monthly per capita family incomes of less than US$ 36 (R$ 100), approximately 11.4 million families, by the end of 2006.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil
