Sanitation: Senate tends to bar change, says Pacheco – 05/08/2023 – Market

The president of the Federal Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), said this Monday (8) that the “trend” is for senators to approve the PDL (draft legislative decree) that overturns changes made by the federal government in Marco of Sanitation.

“What I perceive is that there is a tendency of the Federal Senate to also approve this legislative decree project, but obviously I can only say as a tendency because the Senate has 81 senators and not just its president”, said Pacheco.

“This is a law and, although it is legitimate for the Executive Branch to intend to regulate it and issue decrees, the understanding is that these decrees cannot override the law, especially in points that are specific to the legislative process of a law, and not from a decree.”

Last week, the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government suffered its first defeat in the National Congress and saw the Chamber of Deputies reverse the changes made by the Executive by 295 votes to 136.
Pacheco’s statement was on the agenda at Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo).

The senator also said that the Sanitation Framework “was an intelligent measure taken by Congress”, and came out in defense of the participation of the private sector.

“The Senate approved the Sanitation Legal Framework in the understanding that a large part of Brazilian society did not have and still does not have access to basic sanitation due to delegating or handing over this possibility to state companies”, he said.

“So, the private initiative present, obviously within criteria and within a proper contracting regime is something, in our opinion —and I say ours, because I want to believe that it is the understanding of the majority of the Senate and the National Congress—, intelligent to be done to overcome a basic deficiency, which even affects public health when we don’t have it.”

Pacheco informed that the president of the Senate Infrastructure Commission —where the text will be discussed before going to the plenary session—, Confúcio Moura (MDB-RO), will be the rapporteur of the text in the committee. Moura is also one of the deputy leaders of the Lula government in the Senate.

The expectation of the Planalto Palace is that the PDL will be barred from the Senate. Last week, the leader of the government in Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), said that the Executive is ready to dialogue with the opposition, and that ministers will enter the field to defend the presidential decrees.

“The ministers will be here at your disposal to clarify, and we believe that, with this, it will be possible for the Senate to adopt a different position”, stated Rodrigues.

The Senate Environment Commission, chaired by Senator Leila Barros (PDT-DF), will discuss the new Sanitation Legal Framework with the Ministers of Cities, Jader Barbalho Filho (MDB), and of Regional Development, Waldez Góes (PDT) . The date has not yet been announced.

Senators estimate that it is possible to vote on the House PDL in up to three weeks. Pacheco did not provide a deadline, but stated that the decision will be taken “in the next few days”.

Two main points in the changes to the Sanitation Framework bothered the Chamber of Deputies. The first extended the deadline for state sanitation companies to present guarantees of technical and financial capacity to carry out investments.

The second allowed 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 the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT), 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 changes made to the decree, the state-owned company can renew the contract without going through a bidding process. Rui Costa governed Bahia until last year and installed his successor, Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT).