Tebet announces secretaries and emphasizes a team with different lines of economic thought

The Minister of Planning and Budget, Simone Tebet (MDB), announced this Wednesday (11) the composition of her team of secretaries, highlighting “the different lines of economic thought” and preaching harmony with the Ministers of Management, Esther Dweck, and da Fazenda, Fernando Haddad.

The announcement of the five secretaries was made at the Ministry of Planning building, in Brasília. During the presentation, Tebet emphasized the complementarity of the chosen names and said that, in his “choir”, the greatest score is with the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom he called “maestro mór”.

“I also tried in this diversity to bring different lines of economic thought, which are the differences that will make it possible for us to reach a common denominator and not make mistakes. They are schools with different thoughts, we have UnB, PUC-RJ, we have the Insper, Unicamp, apart from all the international experience.”

For Federal Budget Secretary, Tebet announced Paulo Bijos. He has been a Budget and Financial Oversight consultant for the Chamber of Deputies since 2016. In addition, he has worked as a Budget, Oversight and Control consultant for the Senate and was an auditor for the TCE-SP (Court of Auditors of the State of São Paulo). “It’s the no’s folder,” Tebet joked.

The Secretary of Planning will be Leany Lemos, who held the same role until June 2020 in Eduardo Leite’s first term in the government of Rio Grande do Sul.

By indication of Leite, she occupied the presidency of the BRDE (Regional Bank for the Development of the Extreme South). She took office in December 2020 and was the first woman to hold the post. Previously, Lemos held the same position in the Federal District during the government of Rodrigo Rollemberg (PSB).

The executive secretary will be Gustavo Guimarães, former secretary of Evaluation, Planning, Energy and Lottery at the Ministry of Economy. He had been acting as parliamentary secretary in the Senate since January 2022. According to Tebet, Guimarães was transferred from the Central Bank.

Sérgio Firpo, an economist at Insper, will head the Monitoring and Evaluation department for the Improvement of Public Policies.

Renata Amaral will be secretary for Economic Affairs, Development, External Financing and National Integration. She has served in multilateral bodies such as the WTO (World Trade Organization).

“Renata is connected in the key points, she will help even now that we have the opportunity for the first time to have a Brazilian president of the IDB [Ilan Goldfajn]. Many resources will be able to come from there, especially for the most needy municipalities, with a line of financing, and also for our states”, said Tebet.

The minister said that she will prepare a multi-year plan for the next four years and mentioned the importance of periodically monitoring the actions that are being implemented by the other ministries.

“Here is a technical body, so decisions are technical first,” said Tebet. “After a political analysis together with the Civil House, with the other ministries, we will always be discussing the relevance and priorities of public policies to lead to the final decision of the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.”

Last Wednesday (4), Tebet had signaled the difficulty in hiring black women for his team. Present at the emedebista’s inauguration, a day later, the Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, avoided controversy, but added that she spoke with her on the subject.

This Wednesday, she said she is talking to eight black women and men and mentioned that she would like the director of the IFI (Independent Fiscal Institution), Vilma Pinto, on her team. “Gender equality is present, now racial equality is missing. We are talking to eight women and men who may be joining us.”

“We are also talking a lot with other folders, the Ministry of Racial Equality, Anielle is helping us. [O grupo] ‘Elas no Budget’ has helped us with regard to some curricula,” she added. According to her, the objective is to have “Brazil here within the Ministry of Planning.”

The minister also spoke of acting in harmony with Esther Dweck and Fernando Haddad. “Both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Management and Innovation have opened their doors, we are working in total synergy”, she said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re going to have a coincidence of ideas, that there won’t be debates, we’ve already had discussions of some ordinances, some decrees, that’s how it works. It has nothing to do with an ideological question or much less party.”

Tebet took office on the 5th in a ceremony at the Planalto Palace, which was attended by Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance). In his first speech, he acknowledged having “some disagreement” with the economic team of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) government.

Tebet also preached fiscal responsibility, combating inflation and high interest rates, and defended the approval of tax reform. In her speech, marked by a political tone, she also criticized the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, saying that the former president left “behind seeds of destruction”.