Tarcísio de Freitas releases more than R$ 100 million to deputies

Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) released R$ 109 million for transfers in the form of special transfers to the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, informed the Estadão. More commonly called “Pix amendments”, these transfers are made directly to municipalities.

The analysis and release of resources to state deputies, which are part of the so-called mandatory amendments, is the responsibility of the Secretary of Government and Institutional Relations, Gilberto Kassab (PSD). In all, 58 parliamentarians included Pix amendments in Alesp’s budget – 36 of these were re-elected. According to Estadão, R$ 46.4 million will be transferred to government base deputies and R$ 16 million to opposition deputies.

Critics of this type of amendment argue that they are not transparent and are difficult to monitor by control bodies. Municipalities are prohibited from using funds on payroll. The money must be obligatorily distributed in order to meet demands for capital expenditure, such as the execution of public works and the purchase of equipment (70% of the total), and expenses with current expenditures (30%).

To Estadão, Tarcísio stated, in a note, that all transfers made in the form of Pix amendments follow transparency criteria. “All the special transfers that are part of the tax amendments have already been authorized. Receipt of funds depends on procedural instruction by the respective beneficiary municipalities. The rendering of accounts is done by the municipalities to the State Court of Accounts”, says the government.