Government goes back and removes secrecy from the inauguration party guest list – 02/01/2023 – Power

After the negative repercussions of the secrecy of the guest list for President Lula’s (PT) inauguration party, the government went back and released the information.

The list, which has more than 3,500 names, was sent to UOL by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (see the document in full).

Last week, the column Radar, from Veja magazine, requested the names of the participants of the cocktail offered at Itamaraty on the day of inauguration via LAI (Access to Information Law). The government, however, placed the information under secrecy for up to five years, claiming that the event had a “reserved character” and that disclosure could “harm or jeopardize the conduct of negotiations or international relations” in the country.

The Lula government was criticized for the decision, as it reprimanded its predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), several times for imposing secrecy on federal government information. “It is a clear contradiction of the president’s speech in relation to what he criticized and the inauguration speech in which he defended that transparency be fulfilled”, said Marina Atoji, director of the NGO Transparência Brasil.

How much did the cocktail at Itamaraty cost?

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that the expenses with the inauguration are public and can be found on the Transparency Portal and on the Federal Government Purchase Portal websites.

The General Secretariat of the Presidency informed in a request via LAI of the newspaper O Globo that the inauguration cost BRL 627.9 thousand. The value, however, was not detailed.