Marina blinda Ibama in the Amazon of political indications – 08/21/2023 – Environment

Amid negotiations by President Lula (PT) to attract new allies and a dispute between deputies for federal positions, the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, acts to shield strategic state posts in the area from political appointments.

The main focus of dispute is the local superintendencies of Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural and Renewable Resources), a body whose function is to monitor and inspect environmental violations.

Of the 26 state superintendencies of Ibama, 17 had their heads appointed since the beginning of the government, among which the majority (9) are civil servants.

Marina managed to place career employees of the agency in seven of the nine states of the Legal Amazon and also in the places that make up the Pantanal.

In the other states, nominations remain pending and the positions are still headed on an interim basis. The delay in the negotiations and the veto of nominated names irritated allied parliamentarians, who criticize what they call the minister’s intransigent stance.

“What we want, as civil servants, is for civil servants to be appointed and, when that is not possible, because we know about political disputes, that they be qualified people. Regardless of party A or B, that is not the merit, we want you to follow the qualification profile required for the position”, said the president of Ascema (National Association of Environmental Specialist Career Servers), Binho Zavaski.

“We have been, as civil servants, since January demanding the appointment of positions. The delay in this process led to an increase in pressure for political appointments, to the dispute process of give and take. We understand that the vacant position generates pressure for another outsider occupy”, he added.

The ministry was approached for the report, but Ibama was in charge of sending the answer. The institute said, in a note, that it is working on recomposing its staff.

“Ibama’s boards that have not yet had a definition of holders are being led by public servants, with high technical capacity to work in the positions”, he said.

The institute added that it works so that a significant part of the superintendencies is occupied by civil servants, especially in states with high rates of deforestation, such as Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Pará.

Names nominated by deputies follow on the back burner in a number of states. In two of them, the names for Ibama indicated by the deputies caused discomfort in Marina’s surroundings.

In Paraná, Deputy Zeca Dirceu, leader of the PT in the Chamber, appointed Andrea Godoy a dentist and lawyer to head Ibama. The choice mobilized the Federal Public Ministry, which argues that the nominee has no experience in the environmental area and that appointing her would be an affront to the principles of legality, impersonality and efficiency.

Also according to the Attorney General’s Office, Andrea Godoy is the mother of a lawyer who has represented Rodrigo Cataratas, a businessman suspected of participating in a millionaire illegal mining scheme in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in Roraima.

In Bahia, federal deputy Leo Prates (PDT) nominated lawyer Diego Freitas Ribeiro for the position. Former judge of the Bahia Regional Electoral Court, Ribeiro was denounced by the MPF in the Faroeste operation, which investigates the sale of court decisions.

The command of Ibama in Bahia was offered to the deputy in the midst of an agreement with the federal bench. Prates is a close ally of the former mayor of Salvador ACM Neto (União Brasil), an opponent of the PT in the state, but has voted with the Lula government. The nomination has been on hold for two months.

In documents to which Sheet had access, the defense of the former judge points out that the investigation does not impute him a crime of corruption, that he has no criminal conviction and that there was no appreciation of the complaint by the Superior Court of Justice.

In Goiás, the federal deputy Adriano de Baldy (PP), who is from the center, even indicated to Ibama the name of Fábio Brasil de Castro. The choice was contested by a group of employees at the institute, who held a protest in June against the nomination.

Adriano de Baldy and his political godfather Alexandre Baldy, former minister in the Michel Temer (MDB) government, were responsible for nominating Goiás for Ibama in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) administration

Federal deputy Adriana Accorsi, from the PT, is currently leading the dispute for the post, after having nominated Nelson Gonçalves.

Even the only federal deputy from the Sustainability Network, Marina Silva’s party, faced difficulty in placing an ally.

Deputy Túlio Gadêlha nominated former deputy Wanderson Florêncio to Ibama in Pernambuco, but there was resistance from civil servants. With the veto, the parliamentarian started to defend the name of Daniel Galvão, who has experience in the area. He was officially named last Friday (18).

Also on Friday, the dispute in another state ended: Amapá, the only superintendence of the Legal Amazon in which there was still no definition. The name chosen was that of Bernardo Nogueira, nominated by the leader of the government in the Senate, Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP).

PT members have also found it difficult to get allies to join Ibama. In Alagoas, the environmental engineer and former state deputy Judson Cabral was nominated by the local PT directory, but his ascension to the position remains pending.

The scenario is the same in Paraíba, where the nominee was anthropologist Márcio de Matos Caniello, professor at the Federal University of Campina Grande. His name was rejected by Ibama officials, who held a protest and defended the appointment of a career official.

In Mato Grosso do Sul, the PT nomination of lawyer Giselle Marques, candidate for state government defeated in 2022, was barred.

Among the nine states that make up the Legal Amazon, Pará, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Roraima, Acre, Tocantins and Amazonas have civil servants as superintendencies.

Exceptions are Amapá and Maranhão, which only have half of their territory in the biome.

In the latter, the nominee for the position was lawyer Flávia Alves Maciel, deputy federal deputy and sister of state deputy Othelino Neto (PC do B). The nomination was from the former governor of Maranhão and current Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino.

Among the other states, directors of Ibama were appointed in Minas Gerais, Ceará and Piauí, with the last two being nominated by PT federal deputies.

In Minas, the nomination was disputed by deputy Duda Salabert (PDT) and deputy Fred Costa (Patriota). The biologist Sérgio Augusto Domingues, linked to the Network, ended up prevailing.

The state is considered strategic because its economy is anchored in mining, which resulted in recent tragedies in Brumadinho and Mariana, and because it is governed by Romeu Zema (Novo), a manager who favors flexibility in the environmental area.

In Ceará, lawyer Deodato Ramalho took office with the blessing of federal deputy Luizianne Lins (PT). Lawyer Thays Paiva, on the other hand, assumed the superintendence of Piauí with the endorsement of deputy Flávio Nogueira (PT).

As pointed out by Sheetthe advancement of negotiations for positions in the states faces obstacles that go through local rivalries between the parties that form the president’s arc of support in the National Congress.

Disputes are more serious in the Northeast states, where deputies from parties such as União Brasil, PP, Republicans and even Jair Bolsonaro’s PL support the government and demand their share of the federal machine.

Leader of the government in the Chamber, federal deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE) says that about 80% of the claims are resolved and that he works with transparency to meet the demands of deputies and have solidity in the allied base.