The PT’s land reform model was marked by irregularities

A new agrarian reform program is one of the main promises made by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST). The PT has not yet presented his plan, but he will have to adapt it to the demands made by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), which over the last few years has identified a series of irregularities in the agrarian reform programs of previous PT governments, such as the lack of transparency and clear criteria in the selection of settlement beneficiaries, which ended up favoring people linked to the MST and other agrarian movements.

With Lula’s victory in the 2022 elections, the expectation for the strengthening of the National Agrarian Reform Program (PNRA) was expanded. While in the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) the focus was on titling landowners, now the perspective is that there will be more expropriations and the creation of new settlements. In this context, the choice of beneficiaries can be one of the main challenges, in view of the TCU guidelines to be followed.

However, after almost six months in office, Lula still has not announced his PNRA. Promised in April, the Program was expected to be launched in May. However, the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), led by Minister Paulo Teixeira, the main ministry linked to agrarian reform, has focused its efforts on preparing the Crop Plan for Family Farming and promoting the Food Acquisition Program (PAA).

TCU advocates transparency in the selection rules for Agrarian Reform beneficiaries

The lack of transparency in the agrarian reform process has been one of the main themes of inspections and audits carried out by the TCU on the subject. In an analysis of a 2017 inspection, the reporting minister, Augusto Sherman, highlighted the problems related to the selection of beneficiaries and the granting of lots in the settlements of land reform projects across the country.

The court inspections found, among other irregularities, the existence of beneficiaries contemplated more than once in the program, in projects from different settlements; non-compliance with the minimum (18 years) or maximum (60 years) age requirement of the beneficiaries; existence of beneficiaries listed as owners of rural property with an area greater than one rural module in the National Rural Registry System (SNCR); in addition to the registration of beneficiaries occupying public offices, for example. In the latter case, in a deliberation carried out in 2015, 144,621 civil servants benefited from the agrarian reform in Brazil were verified.

Currently, the registration and selection of candidates for the National Agrarian Reform Program (PNRA) are carried out through selection notices by settlement by municipality, in accordance with Decree No. The rules meet TCU’s recommendation, which judged disproportionate the attribution of points granted to candidates belonging to the camps commanded by social movements, such as the MST.

In 2020, already in the Bolsonaro government, Minister Augusto Sherman pondered the advances in the selection of beneficiaries. “It appears that Incra has been complying with the items of the deliberation regarding the legal framework that will allow the selection of beneficiaries to be carried out in a public, transparent manner and in compliance with legal criteria”, said the TCU minister.

Selection became public in the Bolsonaro government

Despite having suspended actions in the agrarian reform program at the beginning of his government, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) implemented devices that made his government reach the mark of more than 450,000 land titles distributed. The number exceeds the 99,000 issued in Lula’s two terms and the 166,000 in the Dilma government, from 2011 to 2016.

Among the advances promoted in recent years, the publication of a normative instruction stands out, which defined that candidates for agrarian reform lands should submit to a public selection process, called by public notice, with transparency and publicity of the criteria for approval. The norms, in force since 2019, have already yielded 66 public notices published and 3,580 vacancies for land reform lots in 19 states.

So far, the normative instruction edited in the Bolsonaro government remains in force in the Lula government and has already been used to launch at least three notices for settlements in western Pará and one in Paraíba.

TCU points out advances in Incra’s digital transformation

The Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) also pointed out positive effects of the digital transformations implemented at Incra in recent years, after an operational audit carried out by the control body.

One of the central points refers to the Territorial Governance Platform (PGT), created in 2021 together with the Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro). From the tool, it is possible, for example, to request and issue land titles, consult and validate documents or pre-register to apply for the National Program for Agrarian Reform.

In a meeting held at the end of 2022, between TCU and the Technical Group (GT) of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply of Lula’s transition team, TCU minister Bruno Dantas mentioned the digital transformation promoted by Incra.

Dantas pointed out that the TCU carried out an audit with the objective of evaluating the structure and practices of governance and management in the area of ​​Information and Communication Technology at the Institute. The audit found a scenario quite different from that pointed out in previous works, with a relevant digital transformation underway at the institution. However, TCU also pointed out that actions are still needed to increase Incra’s maturity with regard to governance and management of information and communication technology.

Lula government also grants provisional titles

In the meetings of the CPI of the MST, deputies from the ruling base have frequently criticized the titling policy adopted by Bolsonaro. Deputy Bohn Gass (PT-RS) went so far as to say that it was a “fake” title, as it was a majority of so-called provisional titles. In the Bolsonaro government, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) granted 360,000 Contracts for Concession of Use (CCU), the so-called provisional titles, and more than 83,000 definitive titles.

However, the Lula government maintained the strategy of its predecessor. The most recent delivery of titles, published in an article released on the Incra website on June 6, benefited 75 families with the signing of provisional titles. In the publication, the government stated that “the document precedes the Title of Domain (TD), which is the definitive title to the area”, and at the same time emphasized that “both guarantee access to public policies aimed at family farming”.

It is important to highlight that the Agrarian Reform Law determines that the distribution of land occurs through:

• Use concession contracts (provisional authorization for use and exploitation);
• Title deeds (transfer free of charge and definitively, portion or lot of the agrarian reform to the beneficiary for a period of 10 years);
• Concessions of real right of use (transfer, free of charge, definitively and individually or collectively, the right to use the agrarian reform property to the beneficiary, subject to rural exploitation).

MST CPI seeks TCU data to support discussions

The data already prepared and the ability to competently generate new data for analysis during the debates of the MST’s CPI make the TCU be mentioned by deponents and requested by means of a request from deputies in the collegiate.

This practice has already been verified in the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPMI) that investigated the MST in 2010. At the time, the commission asked for information on all audits of the Executive’s external control that had pointed out irregularities in agreements between federal agencies and entities that act on the agrarian question. TCU technicians who analyzed the application of federal resources by entities linked to the countryside and agrarian reform were also called in to help the CPMI find irregularities.

On Tuesday (13), in a public hearing of the CPI of the MST in the Chamber, the former president of Incra Francisco Graziano Neto mentioned the inspections carried out by the TCU, citing the existence of beneficiaries who do not meet the prerequisites of the program and even even concentration of land within the settlements.

“There are studies that demonstrate numerous irregularities in the occupied areas”, said the former president of Incra. In his explanation, Graziano also defended the suspension of the agrarian reform program until the situation of the current settlements is regularized.

Deputy Lucas Redecker (PSDB-RS), in turn, presented a request asking the president of the Federal Court of Auditors to audit the National Plan for Agrarian Reform. The requirement provides that the inspection will be carried out since the implementation of its first edition in 1985.

“It is necessary to resort to the Federal Court of Accounts to conduct a competent audit of the different editions of the National Plan for Agrarian Reform so that reliable results can be available regarding the principles of effectiveness, efficiency, effectiveness and economy and, particularly, under the angle of how much it has already cost the country to carry out its different editions”, pointed out deputy Redecker in his application.