Government discards proposals and favors allies with funds – 07/04/2023 – Power

Before starting to release the R$ 9.9 billion it inherited from the rapporteur’s amendments, the Lula government (PT) created control rules, edited internal acts, did lives with city halls, developed systems to receive proposals from all over Brazil, but, in practice, it has distributed the money on the basis of political agreements.

More than 45,000 projects were registered by municipalities in just two ministries: Health (at least 37,000 proposals) and Agriculture (8,000).

However, the transfers authorized by the government continue to privilege allies of the Palácio do Planalto and the top of Congress, especially the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

During the electoral campaign and after taking office, Lula has repeated that he does not look at the party affiliation of deputies, senators and governors when transferring funds and proposing federal partnerships.

It is in the Chamber of Deputies where the government has faced greater resistance to projects of interest to Lula. The first releases also met demands from ministers.

Of the R$ 250 million pledged by the Ministry of Agriculture, more than R$ 130 million went to projects in Mato Grosso, Carlos Fávaro’s (PSD) electoral stronghold.

While all the R$ 50 million unlocked by the Ministry of Cities were used for a project in Belém (PA), where the family of the minister, Jader Filho, has a long political career.

When contacted, the Health, Agriculture and Cities folders did not respond whether the Planalto Palace or parliamentarians participated in the selection of proposals that received transfers.

As shown to Sheet, the Ministry of Health began, this month, to authorize transfers of this amount to parliamentary bases, mainly deputies. The requests were unlocked and took into account a list of demands presented by Lira articulators to the Planalto Palace.

After pressure from the centrão, the Ministry of Health released R$ 465 million of the resource, with more than R$ 105 million being directed to Alagoas, a state that has Lira as one of the political leaders, in addition to the leader of the MDB in the Chamber, Isnaldo Bulhões .

In total, Saúde has BRL 3 billion of the BRL 9.9 billion that were renamed after the end of the rapporteur’s amendments – the main bargaining chip used in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government with Congress.

The decision to prioritize government and Lira allies goes against rules edited by the government itself on the division of the resource inherited from the rapporteur’s amendments.

In an ordinance published in May, the SRI (Secretary of Institutional Relations), the department responsible for the government’s political articulation, determined that a selection of proposals be opened, with technical analysis and disclosure of the result of the choice.

The ministries that have already released resources, however, have not yet informed how the selection was made.

Before starting to release the funds, Health had also determined rules for selecting proposals. The group of parliamentarians led by Lira became the target folder after Nísia Trindade’s team created rules to expand control in the release of parliamentary amendments.

Pressure from Congress was made so that the resource, in the Lula administration, was released as an amendment, that is, according to agreements made with the Planalto to increase the base of the government, even though the STF (Federal Supreme Court) has prohibited this form. negotiation without due transparency.

Nísia’s portfolio opened a deadline of June 30 to receive proposals from states and municipalities and listed priorities for the use of the funds. The objective was to control the destination of the R$ 3 billion and encourage investments such as the construction of service units, the purchase of medical equipment and the renewal of the Samu fleet.

Members of Congress then stated that, in addition to disagreements over the priorities defined by Health, the process of registering and selecting projects delays the release of money.

The ministry, pressured by the political wing of the government and by Congress, began to release the transfers even before the deadline for the proposals.

In all, seven ministries received funds from the rapporteur’s amendments. In total, they pledged (step prior to the payment) BRL 800 million of the BRL 9.9 billion that migrated to the government’s cash after the STF declared the rapporteur’s amendment unconstitutional.

In Health, the selection of proposals raised doubts in state and municipal managers. The Ministry of Health tried to explain the procedures in at least five transmissions made on social networks, each lasting more than an hour.

Nísia’s team believes that, in recent years, the money for amendments has been excessively allocated to funding. Although it is easier to spend the money in this modality, the government considers that it is necessary to reinforce investments and reduce regional inequalities.

Due to doubts and technical difficulties in registering proposals, the department extended the system’s operating deadline, which ended on Friday (30). Health reported on Wednesday (28) that it had received 37,000 proposals.

For some time now, centrão leaders have been campaigning behind the scenes for Nísia to be replaced by someone connected to the group, but Lula has resisted so far. In public, the centrão denies wanting the minister’s vacancy, stating that what it demands is agility in the release of resources to federal entities.

In a note, Health states that it maintains a dialogue with Congress and SUS managers, “with the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, meeting with 277 parliamentarians, governors, mayors and various representatives of philanthropic entities since the beginning of the administration”.

The folder states that a third of the proposals received deal with investments, while the rest propose measures of “emergency assistance to fund actions and health services”.

During the Bolsonaro administration, there was no selection of proposals for sharing this type of amendment – ​​the amount was distributed according to indications made by the budget rapporteur, after agreements reached between the congressional leadership and the Planalto.

In practice, a portion of parliamentarians gained the power to indicate values ​​above the quotas of individual amendments.

Under Lula, the parliamentarians’ greatest greed is for the resources that the government inherited from the rapporteur’s amendments, as this allows them to send more money to their electoral bases.

The government began to unlock the funds inherited from the rapporteur’s amendments, but broke the promise to provide transparency on the resources.

During the election campaign, Lula went so far as to call 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 Congress to expand its support base.