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            <h1>A Corporate Card the Brazilian Government Rarely Uses Has One Loyal Customer
</h1>
            <p class="subhead">While the Centralized Procurement Payment Card has largely fallen out of favor across the federal government, the Ministry of Education generated more than 70% of its spending and transactions over the past five years.
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            <p>By <a href="https://github.com/LaraCastelo">Lara Castelo</a> | Aug. 2, 2026</p>
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        <p>The <b> Centralized Procurement Payment Card (CPCC)</b> — one of Brazil's three government corporate cards — accounted for <b>less than 1% of all spending</b> made through the federal government's system over the past five years, according to data from the country’s Transparency Portal.</p>
        <p>Yet <b> one government department</b> continues to use it regularly: the Ministry of Education.</p>

        <p>It accounted for more than 70% of all transactions — and spending — made with the CPCC since the second half of 2021, making it by far the card's largest user.
</p>

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<iframe title="The Education Ministry made the most — and the largest — CPCC transactions among all ministries" aria-label="Scatter Plot" id="datawrapper-chart-mHFl7" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/mHFl7/12/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="473" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();</script>
<p>Only <b>five federal higher education institutions</b>, within the Ministry of Education, used the CPCC.
</p>

<p><b>One campus</b> stood out.
</p>

<iframe title="IFMA's campus in Buriticupu Accounts for Nearly Half of the Ministry's Card Spending" aria-label="Symbol map" id="datawrapper-chart-Eyvzq" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Eyvzq/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="762" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();</script>
<p>In absolute terms, the amounts were modest. </p>
    <p>The campus spent roughly R$55,000 (about US$10,000) through the CPCC over the five-year period — a relatively small amount for a federal institution. But because the card has become so rarely used across the government, that spending made Buriticupu the single largest user of the CPCC. 
</p>

<p>The campus also recorded the card's largest individual payments. 
</p>

<iframe title="IFMA Buriticupu's Top CPCC Payment Went to a Person, Not a Company" aria-label="Bar Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-ltrNU" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ltrNU/9/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="398" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();</script><p> Cláudia Maria Bezerra Lima, the only individual among the main recipients, received two of those payments, both issued on the same day, Sept. 4, 2025. </p><p> According to Brazil's Transparency Portal, both payments covered airline tickets and totaled roughly R$5,500 (about US$1,000). 
</p>

<p>That spending is in flight tickets is consistent with the federal government's stated purpose for the CPCC. The card was created for occasional centralized purchases, including expenses such as airfare.
</p>
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<h3>An Almost Forgotten Card</h3>

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<p>Brazil's federal government currently operates three types of corporate payment cards.
</p>

<p>The <b>CPGF</b>, or Federal Government Payment Card, is by far the most widely used. It covers routine, low-value government purchases that do not require a formal bidding process, including office supplies, meals and other day-to-day expenses.
</p>

<p>The <b>CPDC</b>, or Civil Defense Payment Card, is reserved for emergency spending, such as disaster response. Its use has increased in recent years alongside a rise in climate-related emergencies.
</p>

<p>The CPCC, by contrast, has become the least-used card in the federal government's payment system.
</p>
<p>In recent years, though, it has become the least-used of Brazil's three federal payment cards.</p>
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    <iframe title="One of Brazil's Three Government Cards Was Almost Never Used In The Last  5 years" aria-label="Line chart" id="datawrapper-chart-S11Yo" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/S11Yo/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="452" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();</script>
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<p>The analysis is based on monthly transaction records published by Brazil's Transparency Portal, maintained by the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), which discloses spending made through the federal government's corporate payment cards. 
</p>





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<h3>Methodology</h3>            


<p>This analysis is based on transaction-level data from Brazil's Transparency Portal (Portal da Transparência), covering all Centralized Procurement Payment Card (CPCC) transactions from August 2021 through May 2026.
</p>
<p>The Transparency Portal's public data catalog only allows CPCC records to be downloaded one year at a time, and by ministry — not enough to build a five-year, cross-agency dataset in one pass. Instead, I requeried the <b>portal's public API directly</b>, pulling data in 12-month blocks. The API also linked each transaction to the specific recipient — the "estabelecimento," whether an individual or a company — a level of detail not available in the portal's downloadable spreadsheets.
</p>
<p>In total, 138 CPCC transactions were collected across five ministries.  
</p>
<p>To measure how the CPCC compares with Brazil's two other government payment cards, I separately compiled monthly spending totals for all three cards — CPCC, CPGF and CPDC — from the portal's published CSV files, covering the same five-year period.
</p>
<p>The full code and dataset behind this analysis are available on  <a href="https://github.com/LaraCastelo/Gov.API">GitHub</a>.
</p>

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