President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT)| Photo: Joédson Alves/Agência Brasil

The Lula government (PT) denied access to data on national and international travel by the President of the Republic requested by the newspaper The state of Sao Paulo via the Freedom of Information Act. This is what shows a report published this Saturday (8) by Estadão.

In response to the newspaper, the Civil House informed that it could not send the answers mainly due to article 24 of the LAI, which provides that “information that may jeopardize the safety of the President and Vice President of the Republic and their spouses and children ( as) will be classified as reserved”. The data must remain confidential until the end of the mandate.

The report highlights, however, that expenses with official trips require accountability, since they are made with public resources. In the Bolsonaro government, details of travel expenses were being released by the General Secretariat of the Presidency.

Still according to Estadão, Information was requested via the Access Law on the list of entrances and exits from the Ministry of Economy building (current Treasury portfolio, according to the new organization of the Lula government).

In this case, the request was denied by the Ministry on the grounds that it is “information that revolves around knowledge about personal information” and that, to process this data, there would be additional work.

The newspaper points out that, in recent years, the CGU has issued several opinions favorable to the disclosure of records of entrances and exits from public buildings, stating that this information is public.