Guedes will promote a new dance of chairs and change head of the Revenue

Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) is going to promote a new chair dance in his team in the coming months. The changes involve at least three special secretariats and include two departures from the Ministry of Economy.

One of the changes is the departure of the special secretary of the Federal Revenue, José Barroso Tostes Neto, who will take up a post in Paris. Tostes will be attached to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in the French capital — a post that will be created, as well as similar positions in other countries (such as China and India).

The justification of the ministry’s interlocutors is that Tostes has already provided his services to the ministry in the discussions on the tax reform and that the proposal is now underway – although parked in Congress, in the face of resistance from parliamentarians. The rapporteur of the bill that changes the Income Tax, senator Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA), said this Friday (3) that the text will be filed.

Tostes’ departure is decided when tax auditors express dissatisfaction with his performance. In recent days, they approved a motion of no confidence to the secretary due to what they call an omission on issues relevant to the body.

Among the auditors’ demands is a public tender to replace pensions in the Revenue. Vacant staff, according to category, compromise different operations — such as inspection, customs and borders.

Despite this, interlocutors from the Ministry of Economy say that one thing is not linked to another and that the exit was decided before the movement of the servers.

As published by sheet, Tostes was also facing pressure from senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Patriotra-RJ) – who was trying to get his preferred name in the Internal Revenue Service, the central body to unblock one of his defensive theses aimed at annulling the origin of the investigation in the case of ” crack”.

The Internal Affairs Bureau is a key organ to unlock a confirmation of one of the senator’s theses: that he had his fiscal data illegally accessed by auditors.

Contacted on the matter, interlocutors from the Ministry of Economy reiterated that Tostes will leave because of the end of the tax reform cycle.

Another outlet is from Carlos da Costa, current Special Secretary for Productivity and Competitiveness. Costa has long been quoted for a position abroad, in positions such as on the board of the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), but is only now expected to obtain a position abroad.

For Costa, the position of commercial attaché of the Economy in Washington will be created. The function will be to present projects and state-owned companies to foreign investors interested in investing their resources in Brazil.

Costa had had a strained relationship with different members of the Ministry of Economy since joining the portfolio. And, more recently, it had wear and tear even with Guedes.

Another change is the creation of the Special Secretariat for Economic Studies, known internally as S3E. This folder will bring together the command of Ipea (Institute of Economic and Applied Research), IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), SPE (Secretariat of Economic Policy) and part of the structure of studies of another special secretariat – that of Carlos da Coast.

The current secretary of the SPE, ​Adolfo Sachsida, will be in charge of the S3E — planned to be a think tank for studies headed by the Ministry of Economy. In this case, the change had been planned since at least July.

The original intention was to bring in an outsider to work alongside Sachsida, but the approaching end of the year and the electoral calendar (and the consequent difficulty in bringing someone in because of these factors) led to an exclusively internal solution for the command. The choice of professor Aloísio Araújo was even considered, but he preferred not to assume the position.

Recently, Guedes had to change secretaries internally after a stampede. Four members resigned amid the government’s operation and allies to change the spending ceiling, including two of the main representatives of the area that handles public accounts — the special secretary of the Treasury and Budget and the secretary of the National Treasury.

Since taking office (not counting future departures), Guedes has accumulated at least 16 losses of direct and appointed assistants. Previously a fan of external names for appointments, the minister reaches the final stretch of the year facing annoyance from market representatives, which is reflected in a portfolio that is increasingly dependent on internal solutions and career servers to carry out the work.​