The target of recent invasions that may have resulted in the diversion of resources, the Integrated Financial Administration System (Siafi) is under investigation by a task force. In addition to the Federal Police, the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin), the Central Bank and the National Treasury itself, the platform’s administrator, are investigating the case.
There is still no official confirmation whether any amount was diverted, although media outlets report estimates ranging from R$3.5 million to R$14 million. Officially, the National Treasury only informs that “attempts to carry out operations on the platform were identified and did not cause damage to the integrity of the system”, without informing whether the transactions were completed.
What is known, so far, is that attackers used credentials from federal managers on the Gov.br Portal to enter the system. And that there was no external hacker attack that exploited security vulnerabilities on the platform.
After all, what is Siafi?
Created in 1987, Siafi allows control and monitoring of the execution of the Union’s General Budget, recording payments made through the National Treasury’s single account. Primary expenses (financed with taxes collected from the population) and financial expenses (spending on public bonds and loans) are recorded. The platform also allows you to monitor the evolution of government assets.
Administered by the National Treasury, Siafi is divided into control of assets and obligations, system administration, budgetary and financial execution, organization of tables and complementary resources with specific application. All money outflows are recorded, with information on the application of resources and the public service to which the money is linked.
Siafi is not only used by the Executive Branch. The Legislative and Judiciary branches also record expenses on the platform. The National Treasury uses the system’s data to publish, every month, the primary result of the Central Government (National Treasury, Social Security and Central Bank). This criterion is called above the line.
Siafi’s accounting records actual spending and is different from that of the Central Bank (BC), which publishes monthly the primary result of the Union, states, municipalities and state-owned companies. The BC uses the below-the-line methodology, through which the primary deficit or surplus is calculated based on the variation in debt at each level of government. The BC adopts this criterion because calculating the actual expenses of local governments would take months.
