CGU sees evidence that Bolsonaro used a machine in the election – 05/14/2023 – Politics

The review of secrecy imposed by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government indicates the use of the public machine in the 2022 presidential elections, in addition to potentially irresponsible management in the pandemic, according to a balance sheet by the CGU (Controladoria-Geral da União).

Since February, the portfolio has reassessed 254 confidential processes of the Bolsonarist administration and determined the opening of information in most cases.

Among them, there were 112 requests via LAI (Access to Information Law) related to national security, 38 related to the protection of Bolsonaro and his family members, 51 personal data and information and another 15 related to intelligence activities.

The data released by the Comptroller this year show that the release of payroll loans from Auxílio Brasil was concentrated in October, the month of the 2022 general elections.

The use of this credit during the electoral period is one of the arguments used in actions at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) that ask Bolsonaro to become ineligible for abuse of political and economic power.

Information that became public only after reviewing Bolsonaro’s secrets also revealed expenses with the Presidency of the Republic’s corporate card for supplies at gas stations on the dates of motorcycles with the participation of the former president.

Other processes that lost secrecy also reinforce evidence of action by the PRF (Federal Highway Police) during the second round directed at states where Lula (PT) had received more votes in the first stage of the elections.

The investigation into alleged fraud in Bolsonaro’s immunization records is another topic that gained prominence from requests for information evaluated by the CGU. The controller passed on data that were used by the PF (Federal Police) in the investigation that led to the arrest of Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, a former assistant and right-hand man of the former president.

The reassessment of secrecy by the CGU also allowed access to data on medicines and other inputs lost by the Ministry of Health. Based on this information, the Sheet revealed that more than 39 million Covid-19 vaccines, valued at around BRL 2 billion, lost their validity during the pandemic.

The Controllership also determined the delivery of reports prepared by Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) to assess the progress of the new coronavirus during the pandemic, in addition to government telegrams related to the purchase of vaccines.

These documents, however, have not yet been delivered by the ministries. It is common for employees of these bodies to take a few weeks to assess whether there is any information that should be blacklisted because it contains personal data, among others, before disclosing the papers.

The CGU wants to expand the use of LAI in the Lula government and cites in internal debates with ministries that the secrecy imposed during Bolsonaro’s management ended up turning against the former president himself. The Comptroller has held conversations with ministers and other federal government officials to defend compliance with the LAI.

“There is management of consequences in relation to the LAI’s own demand. Sometimes the request is for information that the head of the unit, of the ministry, did not know. In the process, he discovers and corrects it,” he said. Sheet the Minister of the CGU, Vinícius de Carvalho.

For him, requests for information can still help managers to stop irregularities or open investigations.

Carvalho recognizes that expanding the LAI could expose the government to further questioning. But he minimizes these risks and draws a parallel with fighting corruption.

“It’s a speech similar to fighting corruption. Bolsonaro has reduced the number of PF operations, which we are doing again and, in a certain sense, it gives the feeling that there is more corruption when you fight corruption more”, he says.

Lula used Bolsonaro’s secrecy as an argument to ask for votes during the election campaign. “We have a president who not only sweeps the dirt under the rug, but turns everything and any denunciation against them into a hundred-year secrecy”, said the PT in August 2022.

Next Tuesday (16), the government is expected to announce changes to the decree regulating the LAI. “We will comply with the LAI at a much more intense level than in the previous government, but there are normative changes and in the law itself that can be made and that depend on an effort [do governo]’ says Carvalho.

One of these measures is to allow the CRMI (Mixed Information Revaluation Commission) to reclassify documents considered reserved and placed under secrecy for up to five years.

The collegiate acts as the last of the four instances of analysis of requests for information. Under the current rule, this body can only change the classification of documents considered secret or top secret, which are restricted for 15 and 25 years, respectively.

The CGU also discusses how to allow documents to be automatically released after they expire. This is because part of the processes contain documents with personal data that must be at least blacklisted.

One hypothesis is to evaluate and process this personal data while the document is under secrecy, so that it can be released after the classification deadline has expired without someone having to open a request via LAI.

Carvalho states that there are cases in which longer secrecy is justified, such as for documents that jeopardize the safety of authorities or the population.

According to the minister, the CGU has guided bodies to improve the justifications used for situations in which secrecy is necessary.

The reading of the Lula administration is that the Bolsonaro government extrapolated the LAI to use a provision of the law that allows a restriction of up to one hundred years on personal data that affect someone’s intimacy, private life, honor and image.

This type of restriction was imposed, for example, on the Army’s internal process, which decided not to apply any punishment to General Eduardo Pazuello for participating in a political act alongside then-president Bolsonaro, in May 2021. The CGU also had the documents disclosed about this process.