‘Management by fear at Caixa is over’, says president of the institution in office

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On the day that Caixa Econômica Federal completes 162 years, the employee representative on the bank’s board will assume the presidency. Maria Rita Serrano, 53, took office this Friday (12) criticizing the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government at the institution.

“Management based on fear at Caixa is over,” said Serrano in his inaugural speech. “An example of resilience, Caixa once again resisted the dismantling of public assets and the overwhelming policy of harassment and fear sponsored by the management of the last government through its representatives in the bank’s management.”

She referred to the allegations of sexual and moral harassment practiced by the former president of Caixa Pedro Guimarães and reported by bank employees to the Public Ministry of Labor. The denunciations led Guimarães to leave office. He denies the accusations.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the first lady, Rosângela da Silva, Janja, and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), participated in the ceremony, held at the Caixa Cultural theater in Brasília. Five former presidents of Caixa during the Lula and Dilma Rousseff administrations attended the event.

“If today the state has a public bank of the size of Caixa, it is because, throughout this history, the employees, entities and organized movements present here have wielded the banner of defense and maintenance of the public bank in the face of privatization initiatives”, he said. Serrano.

Lula spoke, something that was not foreseen. She praised Rita Serrano asking her to repeat her good performance throughout her 33-year career.

“I only hope that you dedicate to Caixa in the presidency what you dedicated as an employee. I am sure that we are going to live a new period in this country. Brazil is tired of a lot of sadness, tired of a lot of hatred, of many offenses”, said Lula. “Brazil won the right to smile again.”

The president said he will resume stalled works, including infrastructure, which began under the PT government and were not carried out by either the Michel Temer government or Jair Bolsonaro.

“We left it there thinking that the others [Bolsonaro e Temer] were going to do, the others didn’t, and we came back and we’re going to inaugurate what we ourselves started to do.”

Lula signaled that Caixa will be activated as a financing vehicle for public policies for income distribution and investments.

“We are going to have a Caixa that will once again be a much stronger bank, which lends money much cheaper, with cheaper interest, but without losing money, because the bank has to make a profit.”

Minister Fernando Haddad said he intends to have Caixa as a partner and reinforced the bank’s importance in housing finance during the Lula and Dilma Rousseff governments, which allowed the poorest, through subsidies, access to their own homes.

Rita Serrano is the fourth woman to chair Caixa. Before her, Maria Fernanda Ramos Coelho (2006-2011), Miriam Aparecida Belchior (2015-2016) —both in PT governments– and Daniella Marques Consentino (2022), appointed by Jair Bolsonaro (PL), exercised command.

She was nominated by the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, who also chose the president of Banco do Brasil. Both banks were delegated to the PT as an area of ​​influence as a way of compensating it for not being part of the government team.

Caixa’s career employee since 1989, Caixa’s new president has a degree in History and Social Studies and a master’s degree in administration from the USCS (Municipal University of São Caetano do Sul).

Born in Santo André (SP), she is linked to the trade union movement in the ABC region, the political birthplace of President Lula. Rita Serrano even chaired the ABC Bank Workers Union between 2006 and 2012.

In 2013, he served on Caixa’s board of directors as an alternate, in the position reserved for employees. In 2017, she was elected councilor. She is the author of Caixa, Banco dos Brasileiros, in which she tells the history of the institution and its role in the implementation of public policies.

In her speech, she stated that she will reorganize the bank to carry out social programs, such as Bolsa Família and Minha Casa, Minha Vida —which will be reformulated by the government.

Another front of action will be partnerships with states and city halls to encourage infrastructure projects, especially in the area of ​​basic sanitation.

Caixa employees approved the nomination of Serrano, who played a key role in investigating allegations of sexual harassment involving former president Pedro Guimarães —which placed the bank at the center of a police investigation.

At the end of September last year, the MPT (Ministério Público do Trabalho) asked the Justice to condemn the former president of Caixa Econômica Federal Pedro Guimarães to pay R$ 30.5 million for practices of sexual harassment, moral and discrimination against employees of the Bank. The former bank president denies the allegations.

Jair Bolsonaro’s ally — who said in an interview with the Metrópoles website “I didn’t see anything too much [nas denúncias]”—, Guimarães stepped down and was replaced by Daniela Marques.

The former president of the bank, exonerated ten days ago, authorized Caixa to release the payroll loan with Auxílio Brasil resources in the middle of the electoral campaign, which generated criticism for the political use of the bank in favor of the then president, candidate for re-election.

In a recent interview with Sheetthe secretary of the National Treasury, Rogério Cero, stated that an eventual forgiveness of the debts of low-income families that contracted the payroll loan of the Auxílio Brasil should be discussed together with Caixa, the main operator of this policy.

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