Pimentel says that Zema did not act against Minas debt – 11/24/2023 – Panel

Former governor of Minas Gerais Fernando Pimentel (PT) says that the current occupant of the position, Romeu Zema (Novo), blames past administrations for the financial crisis the state is experiencing to mask his own lack of action on the issue.

“Governor Zema’s argument that he inherited the problems from past administrations has already been exhausted. He took office five years ago and didn’t do his homework. Attributing responsibility to my government is an injustice, not to me, it’s an injustice to the facts” , says Pimentel, who headed the local Executive between 2015 and 2018.

Zema’s allies have attributed the state’s fiscal difficulties to an alleged inheritance received from previous administrations, such as those of Pimentel and the tucanos Antonio Anastasia (2011-14) and Aécio Neves (2003-10).

According to Pimentel, who currently presides over Emgea (Asset Management Company), linked to the Ministry of Finance, Zema’s argument that the PT administration delayed civil servants’ salaries is fallacious.

“It’s not true, we always pay in the month due. I just staggered it over the days of the month”, he stated.

The current governor is trying to approve a new state fiscal recovery regime in the Assembly before December 20, when an injunction that suspends payment of debt installments with the Union expires.

However, his plan was strongly resisted by the local Legislature, as it involved the privatization of state-owned companies and restrictions on employee raises. He was forced to accept an alternative strategy, which includes the federation of public companies.

Pimentel remembers that Minas’s financial health improved a little only because of the injunction on debts, obtained by his own government.

“Zema brought his accounts up to date because there was an injunction obtained at the end of my government that suspended payment of debts. He didn’t pay for four years, the debt exploded and now there’s this mess.”

Pimentel also states that his government inherited a situation of uncontrolled spending, but he did not blame his predecessors for that reason.

“The crisis was structural, and during my mandate it was worsened by the recession from 2015 to 17. Zema did nothing to resolve this, he limited himself to using the injunction that we had obtained at the end of 2018”.

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