Guedes says possible corruption with amendments negotiated by the government is less than with the PT

The Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, criticized this Wednesday (26) the rapporteur’s amendments for invading the space of public policies in the Budget, but minimized the risks of corruption involving these resources, on the grounds that any deviations are smaller than than in PT governments.

The rapporteur’s amendments are billionaire resources in the Budget used as a bargaining chip in negotiations between the Planalto Palace and the National Congress. The application of funds is neither transparent nor equitable, as it tends to favor allies of the government and the top of the Legislative branch. They are the ones who choose the fate of the money.

The use of these amendments came into the crosshairs of public authorities on suspicion of deviations. On October 14, the Federal Police arrested two suspected of defrauding Ministry of Health systems to justify a series of transfers from the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government to municipalities through rapporteur amendments. The practice was reported in an article in the Piauí magazine.

“Let’s suppose that there is an over-invoicing here or there of 20%, 30%. You are talking about, well, 20%, a fifth of R$ 15 billion, R$ 16 billion. You are talking about R$ 3 billion. account that falls from R$ 220 billion [no passado] to R$ 3 billion, I think it’s an improvement of democracy, it’s a learning experience”, said the Minister of Economy in a lecture at Fucape Business School, in Vitória (ES).

Guedes did not name the PT, but attributed the bill of R$ 220 billion to governments that used a “closed state-owned company” as a way of ensuring governability. Under Bolsonaro, he says, that account is smaller.

“A peaceful, harmonious Brazilian democracy, where everyone [era] happy because they had their hands in each other’s pockets, everyone turning around. It was an incredible harmony, it was very harmonic. But it cost R$ 220 billion a year. There it is now costing BRL 16 billion,” he said.

In 2014, during the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government, the Federal Police launched the first phase of Operation Lava Jato, which investigated deviations at Petrobras during PT administrations. In a 2015 report, PF experts stipulated that the deviations would be in the range of R$6.4 billion to R$42.8 billion.

Created in 2019 to take effect the following year, the rapporteur’s amendments received BRL 19.7 billion in 2020 and BRL 16.7 billion in 2021. This year, the forecast is BRL 16.5 billion. For 2023, there is a reserve of R$ 19.4 billion, consuming resources from various social areas, which are at risk of suffering a blackout.

Leader in polls of voting intentions according to Datafolha, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has criticized the instrument and defends the resumption of control of the Budget by the Executive Branch.

Last Monday (24), Bolsonaro changed his speech and went on to say that he will work to extinguish the rapporteur’s amendments if he is reelected next Sunday (30).

In this Wednesday’s lecture, Guedes acknowledged that the creation of the rapporteur’s amendments contributed to compressing other areas, such as investments or discretionary spending for the maintenance of public policies. These expenses compete for space with the rapporteur’s amendments within the spending ceiling — which prevents total expenses from growing above inflation.

“We have, let’s say, R$ 100 billion to spend. If politicians take R$ 30 billion, you get R$ 70 billion. Then education is pressed… Then the bomb comes to me. […] They say, ‘Minister of Economy cuts money from school lunch’. Not me, pale face. I didn’t cut anything from anyone, you who cut it from yourselves,” she said.

He suggested that some parliamentarians undecided about the destination of their share should reconcile the application of resources with the needs of the ministries.

“There are congressmen with money and no cause, and there is a government with a ministry wanting to do the thing, but without money. So just introduce them to each other. Say: ‘come here, you have money, right, we need to have school lunches. , would you like to have your name on the door of the school group? Merendeiro deputy. It’s here. Would you like this? Let’s do this?'”, said the minister.

Guedes was responding to a question from the audience about the role of rapporteur amendments and why the instrument is so criticized. After talking about the budget issue, he moved on to the corruption allegations.

The minister stressed that he does not believe in the full diversion of all resources from the amendments.

“If the guy takes it and goes to do something wrong with the R$ 16 billion, that’s the following. He looks to one side, he looks to the other, [e diz] ‘look, pay a little more for that ambulance, 20%, 30% more’. Because corruption is not the R$ 15 billion, R$ 16 billion, by any means. It’s full of honest deputy there who want to take the money to the base. He wants to do a work there in his city, he’s not wrong,” Guedes said.

“Now, let’s suppose that there is an overbilling here or there of 20%, 30%. You’re talking about, well, 20%, a fifth of R$ 15 billion, R$ 16 billion. You’re talking about R$ 3 billion An account that drops from R$220 billion to R$3 billion, I think it is an improvement of democracy, it is a learning experience. , you with your hand in my pocket, turn into a business as if it were a business more…”, added the minister, interrupting the subject and saying “thankfully, I don’t understand politics”.

Guedes also said that the government is “putting money into the veins” of the most vulnerable. “Is he poor? Give him your hand,” he said. “You give money to a thousand Brazilians, 999 will do the right thing and one will have a drink, sometimes even become president,” he said.