Foundation negotiated by Lula with centrão has billionaire budget and distributes toilet and sewage system

Brasilia DF) – One of the bodies placed by President Lula (PT) on the menu of negotiations with the centrão, the National Health Foundation (Funasa) has a billionaire budget and distributes from small bathrooms, garbage trucks and cisterns to sewage treatment centers for thousands of municipalities. .

The body had been extinguished at the beginning of the PT administration, which planned to distribute the foundation’s activities between the Ministries of Health and Cities, but the National Congress decided to recreate it.

Created in 1991, the body has historically served for political accommodation. With the change in plans, Lula gave the endorsement for allies to negotiate the command of Funasa to attract more parties to the base of the government.

On Friday (14th) the government published, in an extra edition of the Official Gazette, the creation of a commission composed of members of the government and specialists appointed by parliamentarians to discuss the new design of the foundation.

In addition to channeling parliamentary nominations for electoral impact actions, Funasa works to improve basic sanitation, for example, by analyzing the quality of water in small municipalities.

The foundation also deals with engineering works, such as the restoration of houses located in regions with a higher risk of Chagas disease.

In 2022, under the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, Funasa had a budget of R$3.4 billion, with structures distributed across the 27 units of the Federation.

During the last administration, it also saw an increase in the contribution of parliamentary amendments. The body received BRL 726.7 million in 2020 for nominations of deputies and senators, while this amount ranged from BRL 81 million to BRL 240 million in budgets from 2014 to 2019.

Funasa’s command passed through several political groups, such as the MDB, PP and PTB. Bolsonaro even appointed a military officer, Colonel Giovanne Gomes da Silva, who left office under pressure from an investigation.

One of those quoted to assume the presidency of the body is federal deputy Danilo Forte (União Brasil-CE), who was already the head of the foundation from 2007 to 2010, when he was in the PMDB.

The idea of ​​extinguishing Funasa was presented by the health group in the government transition cabinet, of which Minister Nísia Trindade was a member and who pointed out that the foundation could be emptied for doing the same as other government bodies.

Funasa was also the center of several investigations by control agencies. The Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) indicated, in 2011, that deviations from the foundation could exceed R$ 500 million.

In 2008, the then Minister of Health, José Gomes Temporão, almost lost his position after becoming a target of Congress for citing that Funasa’s action was of “low quality and corrupt”.

A 2022 CGU report also cited misuse of public money. According to the document, which focused on the agency’s actions in Ceará, out of 303 agreements evaluated, only 3 had been executed within the initially foreseen period.

In addition, there were agreements worth BRL 189 million, signed from 2011 to 2019, but without funds effectively released. That is, without the beginning of the works.

The foundation’s 2022 internal audit report also showed, without going into detail, the body’s profile change in Bolsonaro’s last year.

The document states that the foundation “went from the massive celebration of agreements with states and municipalities” to the “installation of simplified systems and water supply and rainwater harvesting”.

The change signals a focus, in the election year, on deliveries of cisterns or underground water supply systems.

This type of massive delivery of equipment to small municipalities arouses the interest of parliamentarians, who direct the resources to their electoral bases.

Funasa also supplies garbage collection trucks and finances the installation of small bathrooms in houses in poorer regions. It also performs more complex engineering works, such as installing sewage collection networks and treatment stations.

Funasa’s budget forecast for 2023 was approximately R$ 3 billion. The volume of resources available in the reformulation of the body has not yet been defined.

The foundation’s management report on its activities last year says the body has been losing staff. There were 2,600 employees in 2018, reaching 1,588 in 2022.

“The estimate is of aggravation, since 44% of this workforce enjoys the permanence allowance, therefore being able to retire”

says the document.

In addition to meaning a defeat for Lula, the recreation of Funasa by the congressmen also had an impact on the structure planned for the Esplanada. The president decided to have 37 ministries (14 more than Bolsonaro had), but determined that there would be no additional expenses in setting up the new folders.



*With information from Folha de S.Paulo

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