New sanitation decree with regional rule is published – 07/13/2023 – Market

The government of President Lula (PT) published, this Thursday (13th), a decree with new rules that alter the sanitation framework with regard to the provision of regionalized services.

The text was published in this Thursday’s Official Gazette, and also revokes decree 11,467, one of the previous ones.

The Executive made an agreement with parliamentarians in the Senate as a way of not entirely losing the changes suggested months ago in March.

The decision of the agreement was announced by Minister Alexandre Padilha (Secretary of Institutional Relations), after a meeting last Tuesday (11) at the official residence of the Senate, with the president of the house, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) and leaders of the government and opposition.

With this, the government prevented the vote on the PDL (Legislative Decree Project) from entering the Senate agenda, which, if approved, would overturn changes drawn up by the Executive in April in the Sanitation Framework —which received approval from parliamentarians in 2020.

The agreement with the Senate foresees that the federal government will revoke the decrees and issue a new one later this week, without the points that Congress displeased. With that, the issue leaves the agenda of the Senate.

The first part of the agreement was published this morning.

As shown to Sheetthe agreement displeased municipal companies in the sector, which are considering going to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) against the changes.

The point that displeased provides that municipalities that directly provide the sanitation service —without a state endorsement— will need to have the activity provided for in a law of the respective federative unit to continue with the activity.

“It is absurd, we will not accept it. All measures are on the table. An ADI [Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade] in the STF, whatever is possible”, said the executive secretary of Assemae (National Association of Municipal Sanitation Services).

In May, the plenary of the Chamber approved the overthrow of parts of the presidential decrees. The majority of deputies voted to stop the loophole for state companies to provide services without bidding, the loosening of the rules for state companies to prove technical and financial capacity and the possibility for companies to regularize precarious contracts.

The main criticism of parliamentarians in relation to Lula’s decrees was that the president used the text to create new rules, which should be approved by Congress. Therefore, the decrees would not only have regulated the sanitation sector.