Brazil's Lula government misses health and Novo PAC targets, TCU report shows

Brazil's federal audit court (TCU) concluded that the Lula administration fell far short of its 2025 goals in the multi‑year Plan (PPA). In the health agenda, only 16.7% of specific objectives were achieved; the primary‑care program met none of its four targets, while the specialized‑care program reached just one of five. The two health programs together received R$ 163 billion, representing 63% of the health budget.

The New Growth Acceleration Program (Novo PAC) performed worse, with only 23.1% of delivery targets met, roughly half the overall average of 44.8%. The road‑transport component, funded with R$ 12.5 billion, attained only 20% of its delivery goals. By contrast, basic education achieved 58.3% of specific objectives and the environment agenda recorded the highest delivery rate at 58.45%.

The TCU attributed the poor performance to late approval of the annual budget law, operational constraints, insufficient resources, and limited technical capacity at state and municipal levels. Over half of the delivery targets (50.8%) faced reported restrictions, with budget shortfalls cited in 19.3% of cases.