Lula extends transfer of amendment targeted by centrão – 07/13/2023 – Power

The Lula government (PT) increased transfers of the R$ 9.8 billion budget it inherited with the end of the rapporteur’s amendments and maintained privileges for Alagoas, a state that has among its political representatives the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL ).

The Ministry of Health, which concentrates most of this resource, released another R$ 220 million this week, with about R$ 50 million being directed to the government and municipalities of Alagoas – one of the smallest states in the country.

Lula’s assistants claim that Alagoas has received a large amount of resources to serve, in addition to Lira, the leader of the MDB in the Chamber, Isnaldo Bulhões, and Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB).

The MDB belongs to the government base. In addition, Isnaldo was rapporteur for the MP (provisional measure) that dealt with the structuring of the Esplanada dos Ministérios. He is one of the leaders closest to the political articulation of the Planalto Palace.

The money inherited from the rapporteur’s amendments is the target of greed by members of the centrão, who, in exchange for supporting Lula’s proposals, ask for money to finance works and projects in their electoral bases. The resource has been released with low transparency, without indicating whether parliamentarians or government ministers interfered in the choice of proposals for the use of the funds.

In the balance released so far, another leader greatly benefited by the resources is Altineu Cortes (PL-RJ), according to authorities accompanying the discussions. Despite being from Jair Bolsonaro’s party, he has been negotiating second and third-level government positions, in addition to amendments.

The strategy of the Planalto Palace negotiators is to continue to respond to requests from the PL leader so that a wing of the party, which has the largest bench in the Chamber, can support Lula on economic agendas — there were up to 30 votes from Bolsonaro’s party on projects such as the fiscal framework or Tax Reform.

Altineu participated in a meeting last Friday (7) in Planalto along with other leaders of the center. On the occasion, the party group presented the bill for Lula having managed to approve important projects for the economy and for the government to be able to expand governance in the Chamber.

The list taken by the centrão includes two ministries, the command of state-owned companies, such as Caixa and Embratur, in addition to Funasa. The parties also ask for an increase in the amount reserved for amendments in 2023.

So far, Saúde has released BRL 899 million of the BRL 3 billion available from the recycled resource with the end of the rapporteur’s amendment.

Of the amount already delivered by Saúde, around R$ 250 million were sent to Alagoas. Following, municipalities and the state of Rio de Janeiro received (R$ 130 million), Maranhão (83.6 million), Ceará (R$ 66.5 million).

The states that least received this type of funding from Health, so far, are Mato Grosso do Sul (R$ 2.9 million), Mato Grosso (R$ 2.85 million), Roraima (R$ 2.1 million) and Amapá, destination of only R$ 271 thousand.

Lula called the rapporteur’s amendments the “biggest corruption scheme of our time”, “secret budget” and “pocket”, but the new government maintained low transparency in the distribution of the money inherited from these amendments.

The PT administration circumvented the decision of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) that declared this type of appeal unconstitutional and negotiated the sharing based on agreements made with Congress to expand its support base.

As the figure is no longer formally an amendment, the Lula government created rules to distribute the R$ 9.85 billion that passed to the government’s cash after the Supreme Court’s decision.

The ministries opened the selection of proposals. In the case of Health, only states and municipalities can request the resource.

Even before ending the collection of suggestions, Health has already started releasing the money. The folder claims that it only performs technical analyses, but does not answer the reason for the difference in the resource sent to each state.

Health also does not inform who actually received the money. There are cases in which the resource serves to reinforce the cash of a city hall. In other situations, the funds are given to a philanthropic hospital, for example.

Hospital Veredas, in Maceió, whose financial director is Lira’s cousin, received more than R$ 18 million from Saúde, according to Revista Piauí.

In a note, Health said only that the resources can be applied to fund and invest in primary care and specialized health care. “It could serve, for example, to expand oral health and family health teams, to renovate UBS or to acquire outpatient and diagnostic equipment,” said the folder.

The first releases of this amount in the Lula government also met the demands of ministers. In the case of the Ministry of Agriculture, most of the funds already transferred were directed to Mato Grosso, electoral stronghold of Carlos Fávaro (PSD).