The Ministry of Economy edited an ordinance to immediately release BRL 37.4 million for the Federal Police to resume issuing passports. The service was suspended last Saturday (19) due to lack of funds.
The act is signed by the special secretary of Treasury and Budget, Esteves Colnago, and was published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette of Thursday (24).
The unlocked amount represents half of the R$74 million request made by the Ministry of Justice to ensure the continuity of the service.
Despite the release of funds, the Federal Police has not yet given a forecast for resuming the issuance of passports. wanted by Sheetthe institution said it will make new information available when it has “an update on the subject”.
On Tuesday (22), the Ministry of Economy had already promised to unlock passport resources, but in two installments. Another R$ 37 million should be released during the month of December, as they depend on the approval of a supplementary credit bill by the National Congress.
Colnago said at the time that the chairman of the CMO (Mistak Budget Committee), deputy Celso Sabino (União Brasil-PA), undertook to speed up the processing of the proposal.
“We are not going to run out of passports, they will be supplemented,” stated the Federal Budget secretary at the Ministry of Economy, Ariosto Culau, on Tuesday. According to him, it is an essential government service.
The Ministry of Justice had been asking for replenishment of resources since September, as shown by the Sheet🇧🇷 Until now, however, the Ministry of Economy had not had space to meet the demand.
Two months ago, the government had to raise the blockade in the 2022 Budget to R$10.5 billion to avoid an overflow in the spending ceiling – a fiscal rule that prevents the growth of expenses above inflation.
On Tuesday, the Economy announced a new blockade of R$ 5.7 billion. The cut increases the chances of a public service blackout in the final stretch of President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) term.
In order to be able to comply with the Ministry of Justice’s request, the Economy canceled credits that were foreseen for economic subsidy to technological development projects.
The PF carries out the service of issuing passports through a contract with the Mint. The action’s current allocation is BRL 217.9 million, and the entire amount has already been committed (the first phase of spending, when the government commits to the purchase of the good or service).
The amount effectively paid by the agency is also close to the available limit. The high execution of the budget foreseen for passports indicates that there is indeed a bottleneck.
“The service’s online scheduling and service at PF posts will continue to function normally. However, there is no forecast for delivery of the requested passport until the budget situation is normalized”, informed the Federal Police in a note on Friday (18) .
The citizen pays a fee of BRL 257.25 for issuing the passport, but the money does not remain with the Federal Police. It goes to the National Treasury single account. The use of the resource depends on the availability of space in the Budget.
This is not the first time that issuing passports has been suspended due to lack of funds. In 2017, the PF suspended the service, and the government ended up forwarding a request for credit opening to contemplate the corporation.
I have over 10 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked for several different news organizations, including a large news website like News Bulletin 247. I am an expert in the field of economics and have written several books on the subject. I am a highly skilled writer and editor, and have a strong knowledge of social media. I am a highly respected member of the news industry, and my work has been featured in many major publications.
