Government authorizes release of over R$ 1.2 billion in amendments – 05/22/2023 – Power

The Ministry of Health authorized this Monday (22) the release of over R$ 1.2 billion in parliamentary amendments.

The resource must be pledged (step that precedes the payment) at a time when parliamentarians are pressing for more funds and the government faces tests of fire in the National Congress, such as the vote on the new fiscal framework.

Values ​​are for individual amendments. In total, the 2023 Budget reserves BRL 21.2 billion for nominations of this type, made by deputies and senators — BRL 11.3 billion for Health.

Such as Sheet As shown, Planalto plans to accelerate the release of amendments after political defeats in Congress, such as the broad vote in the Chamber to overthrow decrees that change rules in the Sanitation Framework.

Until last Friday (19), the government had forwarded R$ 1.15 billion of the Ministry of Health’s budget in amendments to the individual quota.

The most recent authorizations were published in nine ordinances in this second edition of the Official Gazette. The documents list which state and municipal health funds will receive resources to pay for basic care services, such as prevention or routines in basic units, in addition to specialized care, which involve more complex procedures, usually performed in outpatient clinics and hospitals.

The list of authors of the new authorized amendments will be available on government websites when the budget is pledged.

Government members say that it is normal to start distributing the amendment values ​​from May onwards. This is because there are deadlines for submission and analysis of proposals.

In general, transfers of resources from the federal government to state and municipal health funds are released earlier. Other endeavors tend to take longer, such as buying tractors or paving roads, which may require bidding and measurement.

There are BRL 36.5 billion reserved in the 2023 Budget for amendments, adding individual amendments, state benches and National Congress committees. About R$ 1.8 billion was pledged until May 19th.

Part of Congress and members of the government consider that the effort to release the amendments is still insufficient.

In 2022, the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government had committed BRL 11.9 billion in amendments by the end of May.

Data on the execution of amendments up to May 19 show that Senator Mara Gabrilli (PSD-SP), a critic of President Lula (PT), had the highest volume of individual amendments ever committed (R$ 30.7 million).

The PT is the most benefited party, with R$ 214.7 million already released. So far, the government has invested R$121.6 million in individual amendments by PL parliamentarians, the party of former President Bolsonaro.

Each deputy indicated around BRL 32 million in individual amendments in 2023. The senators’ quota is BRL 59 million.

In early May, the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT), recognized that the government did not act in releasing amendments and filling positions at the pace that was expected by deputies and senators.

“The ministries were involved in resuming programs, in rebuilding government actions, rebuilding teams, or in new ministries [estavam envolvidos em] set up the ministry. So, I would say that the amendments were not committed within the deadline and in the expectation that the parliamentarians had, but things are being oiled”, he said during an interview with GloboNews.

On the last 11th, the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha (PT), stated on social networks that it is legitimate for parliamentarians to make nominations. “It is necessary, it is democratic and it is important for public policies. Politics cannot be criminalized or bureaucratized,” he wrote.

Padilha also said that the pace of commitment is following what is established in the Budget Guidelines Law.

On another front, Planalto’s political articulation works on mapping the deputies and senators who still have open amendments from the Bolsonaro administration, identified as “remainders to be paid”.

Padilha’s secretariat, responsible for negotiations with Congress, asked the ministries to present a survey of the sponsors of the amendments still in execution.

The Lula government disbursed R$4.68 billion in unpaid amounts for various types of amendments. The largest portion (R$ 2.8 billion) refers to leftovers from individual nominations for deputies and senators.

Then, R$ 927 million are amendments made by the rapporteur committed in the past management that had not yet been paid.

The PT management still plans to start disbursing, in the coming weeks, resources related to the rapporteur’s old amendments, which total R$ 9.85 billion. This figure migrated to the Executive’s cash after the STF (Federal Supreme Court) declared unconstitutional that the deputy or senator chosen as rapporteur for the Budget could indicate the destination of the funds.

During the election campaign, Lula even called the rapporteur’s amendments the “biggest corruption scheme today”, “secret budget” and “bolsolão”. The PT administration, however, circumvented the Supreme Court’s decision and negotiated the sharing of this resource based on agreements made with the National Congress to expand its support base.