CGU evaluates whether to overthrow Bolsonaro’s secrecy in 234 processes

Highland

This week, the body analyzes the possibility of withdrawing secrecy imposed by the former president based on questionable grounds

Brasilia DF) – After a request from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to review the secrecy of federal documents, the Minister of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), Vinícius de Carvalho, said last week that the body should start this Monday (6 ), the analysis of the possibility of overturning the secrecy of 234 processes, imposed by the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

“From the dispatch of the President of the Republic, it was determined that we review and re-analyze cases involving secrecy based on questionable grounds, in order to trivialize secrecy and undermine the policy of public transparency”,

said Carvalho when presenting an initial assessment of the results.

Of the 234 cases, 111 presented as justification for secrecy the fact that they involved national security; 35, security issues for the President of the Republic or his family members; 49, information considered personal; and 16 related to the protection of intelligence activities – in addition to 23 with secrecy for “other reasons”.

Although Carvalho did not give many details about which processes will be reviewed, among them are the entrances and exits of people in public buildings, the murder of Rio de Janeiro councilor Marielle Franco, expenses of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro with motorcycles, payments of artists made by Caixa, cases of payroll loans made by beneficiaries of the Auxílio Brasil, registrations of firearms, passenger lists on Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flights and public purchases involving the Army and Armed Forces.

It is not yet known whether among the processes are those related to Bolsonaro’s vaccination card. On the other hand, it is certain that among the reviews are cases involving the disciplinary process that exonerated former Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello for participating in a political act when he was still an active general.

Carvalho highlighted that there is no way to guarantee that all processes will be overturned. For those who have, the data will be provided to those who made the requests.

According to the CGU, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro, 511,994 requests for access to information were registered through the Access to Information Law. Of these, 64,571 were denied in whole or in part.

Among those denied, only 2,510 were appealed to the CGU, the equivalent of less than 5%. “Which reveals that many people give up along the way, after having the initial request denied”, explains Carvalho.

Among these denied requests that were appealed, 1,335 received a new denial – and it is among these that the processes that will now be reviewed. The review can take 60 to 90 days.

According to Carvalho, the review will take place because “in recent years we have witnessed some important setbacks in relation to access to information and the entire transparency policy of an open government”.

Based on the material under analysis, he assesses that the previous government ended up “using certain categories to expand secrecy, in order to make access to information difficult”. As an example of these categories, the minister mentioned national security and personal data protection, used in situations where they do not fit.

The overthrow of secrecy was one of Lula’s flags during the election campaign. The determination for the transparency of federal expenses has already resulted in the disclosure, on January 12, of expenses with the corporate card of the former presidents of the Republic between 2003 and 2022, covering the two previous terms of Lula (2003-2010), those of Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), Michel Temer (2016-2018) and Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).

The data revealed that Bolsonaro spent at least BRL 27.6 million on corporate cards over four years. At the top of expenses are amounts spent on accommodation: they were R$ 13.6 million in total, often in luxury hotels, in contrast to the “simple man” speech that Bolsonaro tried to adopt throughout his term. A luxury hotel in Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo, received R$ 1.46 million from the Presidency over four years.

*With information from Istoé

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