AI system
- System
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Alice (Análise de Licitações e Editais), TCU/CGU text-analysis and data cross-checking robot
- Model
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Not assessed
- Release
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Not assessed
- Application developer
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Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU) with the Ministério da Transparência e 
Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU), in-house - Role
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Not assessed
- Configuration
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Not assessed
- Inputs and outputs
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Not assessed
- Autonomy
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Not assessed
- Workflow
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Daily collection of all tender notices and auction records from Comprasnet and the Diário Oficial da União. Rule-based text analysis (nine checks on competitiveness restrictions, reading of estimated value) and 23 database cross-checks of suppliers. Auditors in the TCU Goiás unit reading the alerts during the public phase of the tender. A TCU plenary decision (acórdão) within two months of the alert.
- Human oversight
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Not assessed
- Relation to AI
-
Alice's role was detection. Per Inforchannel it pulls the estimated value from notice text, runs nine text analyses for competitiveness restrictions and 23 database cross-checks. The auditor's statement and the JOTA article attribute the discovery of the BR-153 notices to Alice. The cancellation was a decision of the TCU plenary (Acórdão 1116/2017). Both sources rest on TCU staff statements, the deployer describing its own in-house tool. The source counts as independent because TCU is a public body, not a vendor. The acórdão text was not obtained, so the two accounts' differing figures (R$39 million, two notices; R$20 million, one notice) cannot be reconciled.
- AI contribution
-
Alice's role was detection. Per Inforchannel it pulls the estimated value from notice text, runs nine text analyses for competitiveness restrictions and 23 database cross-checks. The auditor's statement and the JOTA article attribute the discovery of the BR-153 notices to Alice. The cancellation was a decision of the TCU plenary (Acórdão 1116/2017). Both sources rest on TCU staff statements, the deployer describing its own in-house tool. The source counts as independent because TCU is a public body, not a vendor. The acórdão text was not obtained, so the two accounts' differing figures (R$39 million, two notices; R$20 million, one notice) cannot be reconciled.
Benefits
- Outcome identifiers
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Not assessed
- Benefit
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ordered cancellation of the BR-153 tender budgeted at R$20 million
- Category
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Reduced Risk
- Status
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Not assessed
- Beneficiary groups
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People. Organizations. Society.
- Beneficiaries
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Not assessed
- Reach
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Not assessed
- Distribution and access
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Not assessed
- Duration
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Not assessed
- Expected?
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Yes
- Costs and harms
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Not assessed
Measurement
- Studies
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Not assessed
- Study design
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Not assessed
- Measurement
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Not assessed
- Setting and sample
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Not assessed
- Measures
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ordered cancellation of the BR-153 tender budgeted at R$20 million
- Comparison
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Assumed alternative: TCU auditors reading the roughly 200 federal tender notices published each day by hand
- Results
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Assumed comparison. Reference: seria muito custoso porque são, em média, 200 editais por dia. Result: Os auditores do Tribunal de Contas da União recebem pontualmente às 19h um e-mail de Alice. São os resumos das centenas de contratações federais publicadas naquele dia.
- Additional value from AI
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Not assessed
- Limitations
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Not assessed
- Denominators
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Not assessed
- Materials for replication
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Not assessed
Money
- Kind of value
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value of the two DNIT tender notices for BR-153 maintenance that a TCU acórdão blocked
- Amount
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R$ 39 milhões
- Currency and prices
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Not assessed
- Period and unit
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Not assessed
- Realization
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Not assessed
- Recipients and payers
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DNIT's Goiás unit, which had published the tenders for stretches whose maintenance falls to the concessionaire
- Gross or net
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Not assessed
- Included costs
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Not assessed
- Comparison
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Not assessed
- Method
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Not assessed
- Return and payback
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Not assessed
People and places
- Participants
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Developer:
Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU) with the Ministério da Transparência e Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU), in-house. Operator: Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), Goiás unit. - Jurisdictions
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Benefit: Goiás,
Brazil (BR-153 highway). Developer: Brazil. Operator: Brazil. - Ownership and control
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Not assessed
- Dependencies
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Not assessed
- Cross-border connections
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Not assessed
- Geopolitical implications
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Not assessed
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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Notices published on Comprasnet in machine-readable text. Alerts reaching auditors within the 15–30-day public phase. Auditors with capacity to open a case or contact the contracting body. Contracting bodies or the court willing to block or cancel flawed tenders.
- Replication attempts
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2 follow-up entries. Benefit recurred: 2.
- Later findings
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18 March 2018. By March 2018 G1 reported that Alice, Sofia and Monica were also in use at the CGU, the Federal Prosecution Service, the Federal Police and state courts of accounts, and that flawed tenders had been canceled after their tips.
- Availability
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Not assessed
- Institutional decision
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Not assessed
- Grounds
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Not assessed
- Action and result
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Not assessed
- Success criterion
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Not assessed
Evidence
- Source numbers
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AIBD-0331-source-0001–0004
- Citations
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Numbered references below.
- Language
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Not assessed
- Source relationships
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Independent
- Original evidence
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Not assessed
- Access and versions
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Not assessed
- Supported findings
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Not assessed
- Evidence links
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Not assessed
- Evidence strength
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Not assessed
- Missing evidence
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Not assessed
Grades
- Assessed benefits
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People. Organizations. Society.
- Depth
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People: Not assessed. Organizations: 2. Society: 1.
- Reasons
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People: No individual beneficiary is identified in either source. Organizations: Material to DNIT and TCU: both cited sources state that the tender(s) were blocked or canceled by acórdão after the Alice alert. The amount is given as R$39 million (two notices) by Inforchannel and R$20 million (one notice) by JOTA. Society: A single highway tender among some 60,000 federal tenders a year, small at national scale.
- Observed or intended
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Not assessed
- Rubric
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Not assessed
- Assessor and date
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Not assessed
- Alternative assessments
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Not assessed
- Fill
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Independently reported
Entry details
- Kind
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Not assessed
- Related entries
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Not assessed
- Field
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Public administration: external audit and procurement control. Federal court of accounts (anti-waste and anti-corruption control).
- Purpose
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Daily automated screening of federal tender notices for signs of irregularity so that auditors can act during the public phase of a tender. This use was its intended purpose.
- Dates
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Date basis unassessed: 2017 (precision unassessed). Updated: 21 October 2026.
- Stage
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Not assessed
- Version
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SHA-256: 7489aea69f34…
References
- Other identifiers
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Not assessed
- Category mappings
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Not assessed
- Brief
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Not assessed
- Revisions
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6 revisions. Latest: 21 October 2026.
Sources
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News report Independent author
Inforchannel (2017). TCU cria robô para varredura diária de irregularidades em editais. 27 Sep 2017, quoting TCU auditor Valéria Nakano.
Em Goiás, o Tribunal de Contas, via Alice, descobriu que o DNIT estdual publicou dois editais, de R$ 39 milhões, para manutenção da BR 153
Em dois meses, um Acórdão bloqueou essas duas licitações. Mas esse é só um exemplo.
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News report Independent author
JOTA Info (2017). Alice e a plataforma digital de controle externo. Opinião e Análise, 22 Nov 2017 (quotes TCU secretary Wesley Vaz).
O Alice foi decisivo no Acórdão-TCU 1.116/2017 (relatoria do Ministro Walton Alencar Rodrigues), que determinou o cancelamento do edital da rodovia BR-153 orçado em R$ 20 milhões.
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News report Independent author
Gomes, H. S. (2018). Como as robôs Alice, Sofia e Monica ajudam o TCU a caçar irregularidades em licitações. G1, 18 Mar 2018.
Depois de dicas delas, licitações com falhas já foram canceladas e compras públicas enviesadas tiveram que ser refeitas.