TCU approves Bolsonaro’s accounts with reservations and points out risks of the rapporteur’s amendments

The accounts of the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for 2021 were unanimously approved this Wednesday (28) by the TCU (Union Court of Auditors).

The rapporteur, Minister Aroldo Cedraz, proposed approval with reservations – which indicates the existence of problems to be corrected. The final text with the financial audit of the agency now goes to the National Congress for evaluation.

The rapporteur paid special attention to the rapporteur’s amendments, an instrument used as a bargaining chip by the government to gain support in Congress.

The part of the opinion, anticipated by the Panelstates that these mechanisms create distortions and harm budget execution, which may lead to “possible irregularities in the cancellation of mandatory expenses”.

In recent years, Congress has adopted the practice of covering up mandatory expenses, such as social security benefits and personnel expenses, as a ruse to make room in the Budget to boost the rapporteur’s amendments, which allow government allies to irrigate their electoral strongholds.

The government is then forced to review these cuts, in an operation that usually wears out the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and the president himself.

Despite the considerations, the issue did not generate any reservations to the accounts of the President of the Republic. Cedraz claimed that, in order to transform an “observation” into a sanction, he would need to be “based on much more concrete facts and decisions already taken”.

“But the alert, I think that whoever warns a friend is,” said the minister.

The rapporteur’s amendments are informally distributed in agreement with the commands of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG). as showed the SheetLira has already set aside a portion of this year’s resources to distribute to allies with an eye on his reelection as president of the House, in February 2023.

Government officials also articulated plastering Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), ranked first in the voting intention polls, and declaring the rapporteur’s amendments as mandatory, that is, mandatory execution by the government of the occasion.

The TCU also approved the issuance of an alert to Bolsonaro due to the irregular sanction of the law that extended the payroll exemption, a tax benefit granted to companies in 17 sectors.

The law was published on the night of December 31, 2021 without the government having adopted the appropriate measures to compensate for the loss of revenue, as required by the LRF (Fiscal Responsibility Law) and the Constitution itself.

“The non-observance, on the part of the Executive Power, of constitutional and legal requirements for the creation or extension of tax waivers during the 2021 financial year was evident”, said the opinion of the technical area of ​​the court.

Another 12 rules dealing with tax benefits, including laws and ordinances, were also implemented without due compliance with the requirements of the LRF, the LDO (Budget Directive Law) or the Constitution, according to the auditors’ diagnosis.

The ministers approved the opinion with three irregularities and three improprieties noted by the auditors, in addition to occasional distortions in the BGU (Balance-General of the Union). The findings resulted in ten recommendations and five alerts to the Chief Executive.

The report highlighted the need to investigate possible irregularities in the application of resources in TCU’s own processes.

“We have some cases in the House that deal with different aspects of this issue, and none of them were analyzed by the Plenary or technical chambers”, said Cedraz.

The court identified a repeated diversion of resources linked to social security to fund the education area. It was BRL 4.7 billion in 2020 and BRL 12.2 billion in 2021. The technical area highlights these types of diversion to preserve social security, which historically had resources used for other purposes. The expectation of the technicians is that this year, even on the recommendation of the court, this deviation will not occur.

The technical area also highlighted a distortion in the actuarial liabilities of the military, identifying incorrect assumptions in the calculation that indicate the gap that would need to be funded by the government if it were necessary to disburse all future benefits today. This generated an additional provision in the amount of R$91.2 billion for inactive military personnel.

The TCU also drew attention to the fact that the 2021 LOA (Annual Budget Law) did not provide for specific action to segregate resources for the Covid-19 pandemic.