Senator asks TCU to investigate Lula’s expenses with trips abroad

While President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is on yet another international trip, Senator Eduardo Girão (Novo) filed a letter with the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) questioning the Chief Executive’s spending on foreign travel. In less than six months of government, the Union spent millions on expenses related to these trips.

“We request information and further measures from the TCU in the sense that, within its institutional competences, it makes an in-depth analysis of the travel expenses of the current President of the Republic, which obviously go beyond common sense and the principles of reasonableness, morality and economy, contradicting the dictates of the best use of public money”, informed the senator to the People’s Gazette.

With just six months into his third term, the petista has already made 12 international trips and the most recent one started this Saturday (15), to Belgium, in Europe, where he will participate in the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the European Union. The senator cited in his request a survey carried out by the magazine Look which reached the supposed figure of R$ 24 million in eight of the 12 trips.

In Lula’s international route, countries like Argentina, Uruguay, United States, China, United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Japan, Italy and France entered. On the agenda, bilateral meetings with various heads of state and negotiations for investments in Brazil. The expenses, however, are alarming.

In Girão’s assessment, external relations are paramount for any government, “but they cannot be an excuse for abuses with the treasury, especially if we observe the true ideological joy trains of politicians and businessmen that were the entourages that accompanied President Lula”.

As informed by the Federal Court of Auditors to the report, the application is under analysis by the responsible bodies. The document was filed on July 4th and, after analysis, can be transformed into a process, attached to another similar process or filed.

Lula’s trips have millions spent on accommodation

According to information released by various press vehicles, spending on accommodation in just nine of the president’s 12 destinations exceeds R$7.5 million. Allocated in high-end hotels, the expenses of the presidential entourage on these trips were paid with public money.

On the trip to China, hosting the delegation cost the Union a total of R$ 1.8 million. The trip lasted five days and, during his stay in the city of Shanghai, Lula stayed at the Fairmont Peace Hotel, where daily rates start at R$2,164 when reservations are made a month in advance.

In Beijing, the president stayed at the St. Regis, where rates start at R$1,195. The values ​​are based on queries made on the website booking.com and the website of the enterprise itself.

Other trips with the highest expenses with accommodation were to the United Kingdom, R$ 1.4 million; Portugal, BRL 1 million; and Spain, R$ 815 thousand. In London, the English capital, Lula and the first lady stayed in the presidential suite at the Marriott Grosvenor House London. The daily rate there can reach R$ 37 thousand.

“The President of the Republic has to set an example and respect the Brazilian people who, in their vast majority, survive with modest resources. It is an offense to our people to choose hotels, with advantageous daily rates. The government has to fulfill its mission within the framework of legal parameters in force in the country and, it is up to all of us, to supervise, especially the TCU, the excessive expenditure of scarce resources in our country”, evaluates senator Eduardo Girão.

High budget spent on entourage and support expenses

In addition to the sums spent on hosting the president, the Union also pays for the sums of the Brazilian entourage that accompanies Lula. Even though the Brazilian representative saves on hotel rates when staying in ambassadors’ homes or when the heads of state of visiting countries offer accommodation as a courtesy, these trips still generate costs.

On the trip to China, for example, expenses exceeded R$ 5 million. A delegation of 73 people accompanied the president on the trip and the costs go beyond hotel stays. According to information from the portal Power 360obtained through the access to information law, R$ 1.3 million was spent on car rental and R$ 500,000 on interpreters.

In the United Arab Emirates, Lula had his accommodation paid for by the host country and even so there was a cost of around R$ 1.2 million to the Brazilian public coffers.

On the trip to Uruguay, the Brazilian president did not spend the night in the neighboring country, but there were still expenses with accommodation for the presidential entourage. The total cost was R$ 59.1 thousand to the Union.

Lula government justifies spending on investments in Brazil

Since taking office for his third term, Lula has assumed the posture of resuming Brazilian foreign policy. In some of the 11 trips he made to other countries, the PT candidate sought international investment in Brazil. Justification on which the government relies on the exorbitant expenses with these trips.

In China, the Brazilian representative had a meeting with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, and signed 15 cooperation and investment agreements. The expectation is that the impact will be of R$ 50 billion in investments on Brazilian soil, but the Lula government did not give details of how and where these investments would take place, nor did it inform what stage of negotiation such investments are at.

During the period he was in the United Kingdom, the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced a donation of half a billion from the Amazon Fund. After Lula’s visit to the United States, the US government stated its interest in donating R$ 2.5 billion to the fund.

For Girão, however, such investments should not justify the “irresponsible and unnecessary” expenses made by Lula. “Foreign policy strategies are critical on the world stage, but they cannot be used as a credible excuse for exorbitant government spending,” he said.

“The entourages, notably the one from China, with 73 people is an insult to the Brazilian taxpayer, in addition to having taken people, purely and simply because of ideological affinity and that would not bring any gain to Brazil, like MST leader João Pedro Stédile”, scores the senator.

Senator defends limit on travel expenses

The senator also argues that there should be limits on presidential spending on foreign travel. “Even those trips that aim to strengthen international relations and our participation in the geoeconomic and political board, can be done in a more restrained and conscious way”.

“In this way, I hope that the TCU will be able to act within the limits of its attributions, guaranteeing the control and inspection of this government’s expenses related to foreign travel. In addition, if excesses are discovered, it will be able to act, based on the principles of public administration, in the in the sense of, if applicable, determining the civil and administrative liability of those who extrapolated government expenses”, he concludes.