Sanitation: Lira lists project against Lula’s decrees – 05/03/2023 – Market

The mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) guided the PDL (Legislative Decree Project) that overturns the changes made by the federal government in the Sanitation Framework.

The forecast is to vote on the text today. If approved, the Senate still needs to position itself on the subject so that the decrees cease to be valid. This increases the chances of changes to the framework being made via a bill.

Lira came to guide the PDLs last week, but removed them from the agenda after talking to the minister of SRI (Secretary of Institutional Relations), Alexandre Padilha, and arranging a conversation between the ministers of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT) , and from Cities, Jader Filho (MDB) and deputies Fernando Marangoni (União Brasil-SP) and Fernando Monteiro (PP-P), authors of the PDL.

The meeting took place last week, but did not deter parliamentarians. The technical teams of the folders and the deputies also met, but there was no consensus.

A Sheet found that the meetings were more proof of the Chamber’s willingness to negotiate than a real possibility for the federal government to change the decree. This is because there was no real willingness on the part of the Executive to change the text in the view of parliamentarians.

Two main points bother the Chamber. The first extended the deadline for state sanitation companies to present guarantees of technical and financial capacity to carry out investments.

The second allows the direct provision of services by state-owned companies in metropolitan regions, urban agglomerations or micro-regions (subdivision of the state area).

This point is of interest to Minister Rui Costa because Embasa (Empresa Baiana de Águas e Serviços) is benefiting from the change. The company provides basic sanitation in Salvador (BA) with an expired contract.

The new framework provided for a new bidding process, in which the state-owned company would compete with the private sector to maintain the provision of the service in these cases.

With the decree, the company can renew the contract without a new bid. Rui Costa governed Bahia until last year and installed his successor, Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT).

The change via decree did not even please the leader of the PT in the Chamber, deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), who told the Sheet prefer changes through a PL.

With a probable defeat in the Chamber, it remains for the government to try to prevent the overthrow of the decrees in the Senate. If this is not possible, a new PL must be presented by a parliamentarian in the Chamber to discuss the matter.