Lira demands clarification from Nísia about Health transfers – 02/07/2024 – Power

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and leaders of the House signed a request to demand that the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, provide clarifications on the criteria used in releasing resources sponsored by parliamentarians.

This gesture comes at a time of high tension between Lira and the Lula (PT) government, in addition to strong criticism from parliamentarians over what they say was the Executive’s low budget execution at the end of last year.

Lira and allies claim that the government is not complying with agreements that would have been signed with parliamentarians and blame, mainly, the chief minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha (PT), responsible for articulating the Executive with the Legislature.

This was, in fact, one of the messages that Lira gave in her speech at the opening of the legislative work in a ceremony at the National Congress this Monday (5).

“We will remain firm in the practice of good politics, a prerequisite that is more than necessary for the exercise of democracy itself. And good politics, as we know, is based on an essential pillar: respect for signed agreements and keeping our word”, he said. Lira on the second, to the applause of parliamentarians present in the plenary.

Initially, the document was filed on Monday afternoon (5) only with Lira’s signature. It is not common for the President of the House to present proposals. Last year, for example, according to data from the Chamber’s portal, he signed only one request: the creation of the Mixed Parliamentary Front for the Brazilian Hotel Industry.

Late this Tuesday afternoon (6), a new request with the same content was registered in the system, this time also with the signature of leaders close to Lira. Parliamentarians on the list are part of the support base for President Lula (PT) in the House, as well as representatives of opposition parties and parties that consider themselves independent.

They are: Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), Afonso Motta (PDT-RS), Elmar Nascimento (União Brasil-BA), Adolfo Viana (PSDB-BA), Romero Rodrigues (Podemos-PB) and Altineu Côrtes (PL-RJ ).

High-ranking members of Congress complain that, at the end of last year, the government, mainly the Ministry of Health, made transfers to municipalities in the form of amendments below what parliamentarians expected. Furthermore, Lula’s veto of R$5.6 billion to commission amendments in the 2024 Budget generated noise in the relationship with congressmen.

On Monday, the president of the Chamber also said that the Budget cannot be exclusively authored by the Executive “and much less by a technical bureaucracy that was not elected to choose the nation’s priorities and does not spend the soles of its shoes traveling through small municipalities” , as do parliamentarians.

Throughout 2023, Nísia suffered criticism from parliamentarians from the center due to the release of resources. His position became coveted by members of the President of the Chamber’s party, mainly because the ministry has a large budget.

A leader close to Lira states that the presentation of the request demonstrates the parliamentarians’ dissatisfaction with the execution of the resources and is a reflection of the pressure that the leaders have been receiving from deputies from their parties, as well as mayors, mainly because it is an election year.

In his words, it’s a “domino effect.” “We go to the grassroots and the mayors put pressure on us, it’s an election year. Expectations were created about the transfers and that didn’t materialize,” he says.

In the request, the leaders ask the minister to clarify “how the composition of resources allocated to health actions in primary care and medium and high complexity outpatient and hospital care are carried out”. They state that these clarifications are “urgent”.

They justify, in the document, that although the ministry’s system provides reports on budget execution, “what is verified, in practice, is information that does not allow for a global and individualized analysis by states and municipalities, for a better understanding of the distribution of federal resources for the health system”.

“With the information made available, a system used in which only entities have access, it is impossible for deputies and ordinary citizens to access the real need for resources by municipalities and states to promote health, which is why this request is necessary” , they say.