Lula skates on transparency after setback with Bolsonaro – 12/26/2023 – Power

The implementation of policies in the area of ​​transparency in the first year of the Lula (PT) government has been moving at a slower pace than expected by civil society organizations that monitor the implementation of the LAI (Access to Information Law).

In the electoral campaign, Lula promised to overturn secrecy imposed during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and return to ensuring compliance with the LAI in the country.

After a year, the assessment is that there has been progress in terms of discourse, including the creation of a transparency and dialogue policy, with the implementation of a specific working group in the Transparency, Integrity and Combating Corruption Council, resumed in May, on LAI’s 11th anniversary.

Despite this, there were questions about secrecy imposed by the Lula government itself, obstacles that have not yet been overcome and failures attributed to technical issues, but with an impact on the lack of transparency — as shown by the Sheetthe PT administration spent almost four months without disclosing data from the Presidency’s corporate card.

In September, Lula also publicly defended the secrecy of votes held by ministers of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), contrary to the Constitution, becoming the target of criticism from experts and entities.

In May, the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) released the results of the reevaluation of 254 secrecy processes under the Bolsonaro administration, pointing to evidence of the use of the public machine in the 2022 presidential elections.

There was also a change in the decree that regulates the LAI to make statements published by the body mandatory.

“On the one hand we see some norms and spaces being built and consolidated towards expanding dialogue and strengthening transparency, but on the other hand it still seems like there is something holding back so that this can be converted into concrete actions and results”, says the coordinator of advocacy and research at Open Knowledge Brasil, Danielle Bello.

An example in this sense are the undue denials of access to information due to the LGPD (General Data Protection Law) that continue to occur in different departments.

“The LGPD continues to be a problem for us and will continue to be so if there is no training and clarity of discourse from top to bottom that no, the law does not conflict with access to information”, says Kátia Brembatti, president of the Law Forum of Access to Public Information, which brings together civil society organizations.

In a survey of federal government employees in 2022, the organization identified that many of them are afraid of providing information and being framed for failing to comply with the LGPD.

Bruno Morassuti, co-founder of the agency Ficam Sabendo, states that the organization has already had denials for requests regarding military infractions, illegal deforestation and the Presidency’s agenda.

“We have issues where there has already been a recommendation, review, but in the end nothing concrete happened. This ends up being frustrating considering that we have a whole discourse of transparency at present”, he states.

The director of Transparência Brasil, Marina Atoji, cites a survey carried out by the organization on lists of TCI (Information Classification Terms) in the Ministry of Health, the Civil House and the Secretariat of Institutional Relations that were unknown to the CMRI (Mixed Reassessment Commission of Information), the last reviewing instance of the LAI.

“CMRI has a very poor record of reviewing confidentiality and recording their management, of how many documents or how much information is classified as confidential,” says Atoji.

The CGU reported that the disagreement over this data is being faced for the first time by this government and that it will be resolved with the launch of a system developed with the Civil House to oblige all bodies and entities of the federal Executive Branch to register their classified information.

The most emblematic case cited by the organizations is the lack of a solution to interrupt the dissemination of microdata from teaching evaluations and official surveys by Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira). The lack of data has hampered researchers in the field of education.

The CGU claims to be closely monitoring the debate. In September, the ANPD (National Data Protection Agency) stated that the main risk highlighted by Inep is the re-identification of children and adolescents based on microdata and that two measures were proposed to resolve the issue.

The first is the modification of the structure of the files, to generalize categories and remove information that makes it possible to identify people. The second is to establish data access control.

The CGU’s National Secretary for Access to Information, Ana Túlia de Macedo, says that there is still no forecast for the changes to be put into practice, but that in January there will be a meeting with Inep to discuss the topic.

She also states that around 2,300 federal employees received training this year on the new guidelines for applying the LAI. On another front, the administration is working on developing a tool using artificial intelligence so that statements can be suggested to professionals when responding to requests received.

In relation to denials based on the LGPD, the CGU says that it seeks to identify cases and topics in which data protection is still used incorrectly and to establish parameters to assist bodies and entities in analyzing specific cases.

In this sense, the Controllership maintains communication channels via email and telephone to resolve general doubts regarding the application of the LAI.

“With each decision here at CGU and each guidance we give to the public servant who contacts us, we provide security so that the bodies can feel more at ease when providing information, even if the document contains personal data”, says Macedo.

The secretary adds that, at the beginning of the year, the government should start using a tool, developed by Petrobras, to automatically tag sensitive personal data, with the expectation of equalizing the problem in relation to the LGPD.

“If I have the person’s address in a contract, this is sensitive personal data, so I need to mark it. But if it is a public servant, his salary is on the Transparency Portal and this will remain public”, he says.