Lula imposed 100-year secrecy on Janja’s agenda and list of military personnel in 8/1

The Lula government denied more than 1,300 requests for information last year on a variety of topics, including the agenda of the first lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva, and the list of military personnel from the Presidential Guard Battalion who were on duty. duty during the events on January 8, 2023.

Requests for information were made via the Access to Information Law (LAI) and revealed in a survey published by the newspaper The State of São Paulo (Estadão)this Thursday (21).

According to the newspaper, in some of the denials, the General Comptroller of the Union (CGU) claimed that the requested information was “personal data”.

In practice, the answer means that the data is under confidentiality for 100 years, since article 31 of the LAI states that “personal information relating to intimacy, private life, honor and image will have its access restricted for a maximum period of 100 years from of its production date”.

Wanted by Estadãothe CGU said that “there are legitimate reasons” for secrecy and criticized the management of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), target of attacks by President Lula (PT) during the electoral campaign for having kept information about his card confidential vaccine, the identity of those who visited him at Palácio do Planalto and the agenda of the former first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.

“It’s something we’re going to have to do: a decree, a repeal of this secrecy that Bolsonaro is creating to defend his friends,” said Lula during an interview with a radio station in São Paulo, in 2022.

“Anyone could know what was happening in our government. Now, not Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro said he has no corruption, but decrees 100 years of secrecy for any accusations against him. He decrees 100 years of secrecy for his son, for his friends, for Pazuello. None of it is investigated. Here it takes 100 years, for when he no longer exists”, added Lula, who at the time was campaigning to assume his third term as President of the Republic”, added the PT member.

Wanted by People’s Gazettethe General Comptroller of the Union (CGU) shared with the newspaper the same explanation given to the Estadão. The CGU note can be seen in full at the end of this article.

A People’s Gazette also questioned the Presidency’s Social Communication Secretariat (Secom) about the matter. In response to the newspaper, Secom directed the demand to CGU.

The survey of Estadão on the number of requests for information denied by the CGU was made with the help of Data Fixers, a consultancy specialized in collecting data and public records to produce reports.

In total, according to the newspaper, last year, the Lula government denied 1,339 requests for information on the grounds that it contained personal data. The number is similar to the volume of requests denied, in 2022, by the Bolsonaro administration under the same allegation: 1,332 requests.

Furthermore, according to the survey, the peak of denied requests for information occurred in 2013, during the administration of former president Dilma Rousseff, when 3,732 requests were denied.

Among the information denied, the Civil House did not give access to the first lady’s agenda in Alvorada and Planalto; the declaration of conflict of interest by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira; and about the contents of emails from former servers.

The Army denied access to the list of members of the Presidential Guard Battalion on January 8; and Mauro Cid’s military record, in addition to the complete history of punishments and disciplinary sanctions of Bolsonaro’s former assistant.

The Federal Highway Police (PRF) denied a request for information about the retirement process of former director Silvinei Vasques.

Itamaraty denied information about diplomatic communications that mention former football player Robson de Souza, known as Robinho; and about telegrams that quote Thiago Brennand, who is responsible for rape, torture and kidnapping against women.

The Ministry of Education denied access to disciplinary proceedings against employees. And, Funai did not provide information regarding the dispute over indigenous territories, nor did it provide access to processes in the Electronic Information System (SEI)

Check out the CGU note in full

In the current government, in compliance with the Presidential Order of January 1, 2023, which determined the adoption of measures to review acts that imposed undue secrecy on publicly accessible documents, the CGU identified the main cases that would need to be reevaluated and eventually revised, presented in a third instance appeal, where the restriction based on art. 31 of the Access to Information Law (LAI), which deals with personal information, had possibly been done in a generic and mistaken way.

As a result of the work, 12 thematic statements were prepared on concrete situations that may be the subject of access requests, 8 of which refer to the aforementioned topic. In this process, 252 cases of improperly applied secrecy were reviewed.

From this survey, it was possible to verify that the previous government invoked the protection of personal data and article 31 of the LAI as a pretext for failing to disclose information that, according to the Law, should be public. This is what happened, for example, in cases of public agendas, records of entries and exits of public buildings, administrative processes, among others that became notable during the last government.

None of this means that article 31 of the LAI has ceased to exist. Denial of requests for access to information is carried out based on an analysis of each specific case, and there are legitimate reasons why it is used depending on the case.

In addition to reviewing and regulating the improper imposition of secrecy based on article 31 of the LAI, the CGU adopted a series of structuring measures to promote transparency.

Thus, we improved the LAI decree and created the Integrity, Transparency and Access to Information System and the Transparency and Access to Information Policy, consolidating principles and guidelines, to overcome the dispersed and heterogeneous regulatory framework for government action.

We also reestablished and strengthened the Transparency, Integrity and Combating Corruption Council, in which we rely on dialogue and participation from civil society to formulate our transparency and combating corruption policies. The Council met 4 times in 2023, and established a Plan with actions by 4 working groups with government and civil society representatives that are working and should deliver their results soon.

Finally, as LAI is applied by people in all Brazilian public bodies and entities, we are also working to train these public servants. Since the beginning of 2023, we have trained 2,269 servers to apply the LAI.