Randolfe creates a problem for Haddad and another bill for the taxpayer

While trying to balance the government’s accounts in order to bring the primary deficit to zero next year, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad received a new bombshell to defuse. The problem, this time, was created by an ally, the government leader in Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (no party-AP), author of a proposed amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that could generate an additional cost of R$6, 3 billion per year for the Union.

Approved unanimously by the Senate, the text could include up to 50,000 public servants who were hired from the former federal territories of Rondônia, Amapá and Roraima, transformed into federative units in the 1980s, into the federal government’s payroll. municipalities and even people who worked without a permanent contract have the same right.

Today, according to calculations obtained by “Folha de S.Paulo”, the Union already pays salaries to 16,300 employees from former territories, whose ties were recognized as of 2015. The average remuneration of these employees is R$9, 7 thousand, but there are positions where salaries reach R$30.9 thousand per month.

If the PEC approved in the Senate passes in full in the Chamber and all people who have the right to be reclassified are covered, there will be an increase of R$485 million to the monthly payroll, considering the average salary, which would result in an additional expense of R$ 6.3 billion per year, already considering the 13th salary.

The amount would impose on the government the need to find a source of compensation, in a scenario in which the goal established by the Treasury of having a neutral primary result in 2024 is already considered unfeasible by most economic analysts.

Government technicians, on condition of anonymity, told “Folha” that, in addition to the budgetary impact, the measure could also make it difficult to carry out public competitions planned by the Executive.

An agreement would have been signed with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), so that the matter could be voted on during the anniversary week of the creation of the territory of Amapá, celebrated on September 13th. Approval, in two rounds, with votes from members of the base of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) government, took place on the 12th.

In an interview with the newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo”, the Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services, Esther Dweck, classified the proposal as “very bad”.

“The PEC is very bad, and I’ve already said this to everyone: to the president [do Senado] Rodrigo Pacheco, for government leader [no Senado, Jaques Wagner] and for Randolfe. We understand the context of the approval, it was an internal matter for Congress,” he said. “Now we are going to do work in the Chamber to change the text”, said the minister.

The government’s intention is to at least tighten the rules for classifying civil servants on the Union payroll.”[A PEC] it extended the deadline, relaxed rules, included other Powers, people who did not work not only in the state administration, but also in municipalities”, commented Dweck.

Randolfe minimized resistance to the project and did not rule out changes to the text. “I spoke with Minister Esther. The biggest problem was the amendments [apresentadas]. We will make any adjustments in the Chamber”, the parliamentarian told “Folha” after approving the proposal.

PEC united base and opposition and was unanimously approved in the Senate

Elected by Amapá, the senator was the first signatory of the PEC in 2018. The proposal received a favorable opinion from the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ), but was shelved in 2022 with the end of the previous legislature.

This year, the current government leader in Congress, as well as senator Lucas Barreto (PSD-AP) made requests for the unarchiving. According to the authors of the proposal, the intention is to end the unequal treatment of employees from different former territories.

When Rondônia became a state of the Federation, in 1981, the payroll of civil servants was the responsibility of the Union for ten years, until 1991. With the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution, Amapá and Roraima should be transformed into states according to the same criteria, but the transition period ended up being set at just five years.

“This right, over time, was unfortunately not realized. It has been a long journey to reach this day and guarantee this historic right for those who worked in the former territories of Rondônia, Roraima and Amapá. We are ensuring a restricted right for the citizens of these federal territories”, said the government leader.

The text had broad support in the Senate, where it was unanimously approved by those present in both rounds of voting. The rapporteur was senator Marcos Rogério (PL-RO), who opposes the government, but joined Rodrigues on the agenda.

“See that here we have, within political action, two extremes. Senator Randolfe, who is one of the government leaders in the Senate and Congress, and I, Senator Marcos Rogério, in the opposition. It is an issue that unites both extremes in defense of the populations of our states”, said the rapporteur in the Plenary.

The PEC provides that all people who maintained a working relationship with the administration of the former territories and their municipalities, or who became civil servants during the first ten years of the creation of the respective states, will be able to opt for the rights and advantages of the Union’s functional framework. .

If approved by the Chamber, this will be the fifth constitutional amendment with the aim of expanding the possibilities for incorporating civil servants from former territories. The novelty will be the expansion of the spectrum of beneficiaries who can join the disappearing framework of the federal public administration.

Under the current rule, verification of the link with former territories occurs over a period of five years, counting from the date of creation of the states. Under the PEC, the term is now ten years.

In addition, anyone who has had a functional relationship, whether permanent or not, or an employment relationship, regardless of the form of remuneration, may be recognized as a beneficiary.

The rule will apply to people who have worked for the public administration of former territories and their municipalities; for the Union, acting within the scope of former territories, states or city halls; or for a public company, mixed capital company or official financial institution, even those that are already extinct. The classification must have lasted for at least 90 days.