BNDES tries to postpone the return of funds to the Treasury, and TCU raises its tone against the bank

The plenary of the TCU (Union Court of Auditors) raised its tone against the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) after the financial institution tried a maneuver to delay the return of resources to the National Treasury.

Ministers of the court of accounts said that the institution shows “persistent reluctance” to comply with court orders and even mentioned the possibility of removing leaders as punishment.

The TCU also threatened to issue an injunction to suspend any distribution of profit sharing to its employees until the federal funds are returned.

as revealed to Sheetwhile retaining Treasury contributions (made during PT governments), the current management of BNDES distributed an average benefit of R$ 108.1 thousand to its employees through its PLR (Profit Sharing) program referring to the results 2021. The highest PLR went from R$ 257 thousand.

Sought, the BNDES did not manifest itself until the publication of this text. On other occasions, the bank denied a relationship between federal resources and the payment of benefits to employees — a criticism pointed out by government technicians.

In September, the TCU ordered the bank to comply with a faster schedule for returning funds injected by the National Treasury during PT governments. The transfers were considered irregular by the cut of accounts, and their maintenance in the BNDES’ coffers keeps the public debt higher and obliges the country to pay interest.

The decision should mean the anticipation of R$ 88 billion in public resources that are still in the possession of the development bank – of which R$ 10 billion have already been approved in the institution’s internal bodies.

The BNDES appealed claiming that the faster repayment of the amounts will force the bank to raise funds in the market (at a higher interest rate) or sell shares of companies that are in the portfolio of BNDESPar, the institution’s equity arm.

The bank asked the TCU if these measures would be legal and if it could take the risk of having losses on the contracts, since the rates charged on loans granted with Treasury resources are lower than those potentially charged to finance themselves in the market.

“These embargoes clearly have a delaying nature and are part of the context already known to you of the BNDES’ persistent reluctance to comply with the determinations of this court to proceed with the return of large amounts that, it is important to note, were transferred to it irregularly”, said TCU minister Jorge Oliveira, rapporteur for the BNDES’ review request.

He recalled that the court also ordered, in September, the initiation of a specific process to evaluate the use of the income obtained from the Treasury’s money to pay PLR to the bank’s employees.

“Let it be clear, the postponement of the elaboration of an adequate schedule of returns could lead this court to adopt a precautionary measure to prevent the distribution of profits to its employees. Oliveira.

The rapporteur also said that it is not up to the TCU to define the procedures to be adopted to comply with the schedule and that the alternatives must be analyzed by BNDES together with the Ministry of Economy, to which the bank is subordinate.

Minister Walton Alencar, dean of the TCU, said that the BNDES’ resistance to complying with decisions “goes through management”.

“The administrations pass and the BNDES remains exactly the same. It comes to the court, makes promises of amendments, but it is always the same recalcitrance in meeting the public interest. most basic rules of administrative law”, criticized Alencar.

“Only when the TCU starts to systematically punish all these directors, all these directors, will we start to obtain results. We will remove them, we have the legal competence to remove directors who refuse to comply with TCU decisions”, said the dean. Despite the defense, no concrete measure in this regard was considered by the court’s plenary.

Alencar also said that BNDES has in its portfolio shares of already mature and profitable companies, such as Vale and Marfrig, which, in his view, would be inappropriate for a development bank, whose function is to promote small and new businesses in the country.

“These shares pay good dividends, which are earned as profits and are distributed to their employees. This is criminal,” said the minister. He advocated carrying out an audit to assess the bank’s reasons for retaining these shares — even though the bank acted to sell part of the shares it holds in large companies.

“BNDES is one of the most blatant cases of recalcitrance within the public administration and the use of public assets for the benefit of its employees,” said the minister.