Lula: Rapporteur’s amendments were poor policy period – 02/16/2023 – Politics

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Thursday (16th) that the payment of the rapporteur’s amendments in the National Congress represented a “poor period in Brazilian politics”.

In an interview with CNN Brasil, the PT also stated that it will be up to the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) to assess whether complaints against ministers are valid and whether they are sufficient to lead to the dismissal or not of a member of the government.

The representative said that he will work to establish a republican relationship with the Legislature so that it is possible to have a solid base even without the mechanism that increased the allocation of funds to deputies and senators to send to states and municipalities.

“It’s possible for you to build governance without having to have a secret budget, it’s possible. I’m going to try. I have four years to try this.”

The expression secret budget is used to refer to rapporteur amendments, also identified as RP9. It is a tool that allows parliamentarians to apply for Union funding without details such as identification or even allocation of resources. They were used in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government to guarantee parliamentary support by sending billions of reais in works and projects to the political bases of congressmen across the country.

At the end of last year, the STF (Federal Supreme Court) determined that the instrument was unconstitutional, which generated noise between parliamentarians from the centrão, in particular the mayor Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the elected government.

The analysis of the theme was 5 to 5 and was decided by vote of minister Ricardo Lewandowski, who is seen by congressmen as a magistrate close to Lula. Therefore, the assessment was that the PT party influenced the judgment.

Lula harshly criticized the mechanism and Lira during the elections. After the election, she softened the attacks.

Now, the government works in partnership with the president of the Chamber to use other types of amendments that facilitate the approval of Executive bills in Congress.

An example was the agreement made by Lula with Lira so that part of the ministries’ budget is used to pay for amendments by novice deputies who helped to re-elect the president of the Chamber.

Newly elected deputies cannot indicate amendments, because the Budget is negotiated and closed before they take office.

Therefore, in the campaign to maintain command of the Chamber, Lira promised that newcomers could also, throughout 2023, send money for works and projects in their electoral strongholds.

Due to the agreement with Lula, the President of the House will be able to fulfill the promise made to the neophytes.

In the interview, the president also downplayed the ties of the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Carneiro (União Brasil-RJ), with the militia.

“She appeared in a truck there with a militia guy. Honestly, if we take into account people who are photographed alongside other people, we won’t talk to anyone, because I’m the guy who takes the most photographs in the world. If I take a picture of Lula with people who have become my enemy, I’m completely screwed for the rest of my life. Let’s judge correctly, let’s not be in a hurry”, he said.

He also explained how he will deal with complaints against his ministers. “For me, everyone, without distinction, will have the right to the presumption of innocence. So, when there is a complaint, we go internally, through the CGU, to investigate whether the complaint is valid. If the complaint is valid, the minister will be removed. If the complaint is not valid according to the CGU, we will say that the complaint is not valid.”

Daniela was appointed minister as a way of contemplating the União Brasil and expanding the female presence in the government assembly.

It was also a reward for her and her husband’s efforts in the second round campaign in favor of President Lula. The couple was one of the few leaders to openly support the PT in Baixada Fluminense — the minister’s husband, Waguinho, is mayor of Belford Roxo.

Daniela was re-elected federal deputy as the most voted in Rio de Janeiro. Such as Sheet showed in October, her campaign was marked by irregular support from Military Police officers and by the hostile and armed environment against political opponents from her electoral base.

The Waguinho family maintains links with militiamen. One of them is with the family of former PM Juracy Alves Prudêncio, known as Jura, convicted and arrested on charges of leading a militia in the Baixada Fluminense.

Daniela also had the support of former councilwoman Giane Prudêncio, Jura’s wife, in the 2018 and last year elections.

The militiaman himself got involved in Daniela’s campaign activities four years ago, when he was serving sentences for homicide and criminal association in a semi-open regime.

The minister herself, in January, tried to minimize the episode. “More than 213,000 people have placed their trust in me. Everything is under control; I already sent a note”, she said to Sheet.

He also said that association with the militias for taking pictures alongside a convicted murderer is not enough to link it to crimes committed by police officers and former police officers in Rio de Janeiro. “I had more than 200,000 votes. In the campaign you take pictures with a lot of people.”

Lula also said that he had called Alexandre Padilha (Minister of Institutional Relations), from the United States, so that he could ask for an explanation about the accusations involving Juscelino Filho (Minister of Communications) and told him to explain his version correctly to the press.

As shown to Sheetan audit by the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) reveals deviations in works that relied on public funds directed by the current Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil-MA), to his electoral stronghold governed by his sister.

The beneficiary of the overpricing, according to the auditors, was the contractor Engefort, appointed by the TCU inspection as leader of a cartel of asphalting companies that would have defrauded bids that add up to more than R$ 1 billion in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).