Guedes says rapporteur amendments are used to generate support for government and reform

Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) said this Tuesday (30) that the amendments by the rapporteur of the Budget, through which the government of Jair Bolsonaro transfers funds to allied parliamentarians, are used to generate support for the Executive and to approve reforms.

The rapporteur’s amendments, which have little transparency about which congressman was awarded the resources and where they were directed, are the target of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) – which suspended the execution of the instruments and demanded public details about them. In response, Congress said it had no way of complying with the decision.

Guedes said that the rapporteur’s amendments were already used during the term of the then president of the Chamber Rodrigo Maia, predecessor of current president Arthur Lira (PP-AL), but that they did not receive as much attention. The minister suggested that this was because Maia was in opposition to the government.

“When Rodrigo Maia was the president, I remember that he had a request for R$ 30 billion from Domingos Neto [deputado do PSD-CE], who was the rapporteur at the time. It was twice as much as today and there was no such upheaval,” he said. “Possibly because at that time the president of the Chamber guaranteed the resources to remain independent from the government, to do politics even though he was opposed to the government,” he said.

“Now, that’s half that money, but to support the government and make reforms, everyone found out that the budget is secret. […]. That wasn’t created by Lira, it was created before, it was used before,” Guedes said.

This month, the Federal Police asked the STF to launch an inquiry to determine whether there were irregularities in the payment of amendments by the rapporteur to deputies and senators. The corporation told the court that it considered it necessary to investigate whether there was illicit use of public money in the payment of these funds for the purchase of tractors and agricultural machinery.

Guedes called “pathetic” what he understands to be a “fight” for R$ 15 billion in resources in rapporteur amendments, with total government expenditure reaching R$ 1.8 trillion per year. For him, the Budget should be reformed to remove mandatory cats and de-index them, leaving the funds largely free to be discussed.

The head of the economic team spoke at an event held by the CBIC (Brazilian Chamber of Construction Industry) and, despite saying that Maia was from the opposition, at the beginning of his speech he thanked the former president of the Chamber for the approval of the Social Security reform.

The economy minister also cited frustration at not being able to complete his goals in government. “It frustrates us to arrive with big dreams and make 50%, 40%”, he affirmed, without talking about the reasons why his goals were not reached.

The percentages mentioned by the minister are overestimated, considering all the objectives presented during the last presidential elections.

Survey of sheet made in September showed that, of 14 promises linked to the economy presented in 2018 in the Bolsonaro electoral program, only one had completely left the paper — the independence of the Central Bank.

All other measures, such as the recasting of the Budget and the tax reform, had totally or partially stayed by the wayside. Even the change in Social Security rules, the only major reform approved, left out a central point of Guedes’ proposal — capitalization.

Part of the economic agenda was affected by the arrival of Covid-19, in 2020, when the country turned to facing the pandemic and its effects. But even before that, the government was delaying sending reforms, such as the administrative one.

At the moment, the government’s priority is to approve the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatório – which circumvents the rule of the spending text, expanding it, and creating a limit for the payment of court sentences against the State.

Guedes said he is certain that the Senate will approve the PEC, which generates a snowball of liabilities while making room for new expenses — such as the increase for the Auxílio Brasil social program and other items.