Brazilian science is suffering persecution and an attempt to suffocate, warns Fábio Guedes Gomes, president of Fapeal (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Alagoas) and executive secretary of ICTPBr (Initiative for Science and Technology in the Brazilian Parliament).
The statement is given at a time when scientific societies are moving to reverse the contingency of the FNDCT (National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development) lasting until 2026, determined by MP (Provisional Measure) 1.136/2022.
The measure was published on Monday (29), by the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL), and sets a spending limit of 58% of the fund for 2023, 68% in 2024, 78% in 2025 and 88% in 2026.
With this MP and a second one, which cuts funds from the cultural area, the Bolsonaro government’s objective is to redirect space in the Budget to accommodate other expenses, including parliamentary amendments, and help close the bills for the proposal for 2023.
“It seems that there is a line of pursuit of science, which is based on the technicality of public accounts”, says Gomes, who points out that this is not the first time that the Ministry of Economy has taken measures to withdraw money from national research. “The Economy portfolio has always been a historic problem for Brazilian science.”
THE Sheet contacted the Ministry of Economy to comment on the statements, but had no response until the publication of this report.
With the measure, not even money for the rest of this year there is, says Gomes. The MP places a budget cap of R$5.5 billion for 2022. “If this provisional measure is not returned by Congress to the president, science and technology is over this year”, he says. “There’s a line of work to smother the area.”
Expenses that should be paid this year will have to be paid for next year, and so on, which will make national science unfeasible, according to the president of Fapeal. “You won’t have anything new until 2026, you don’t have money,” he says.
Gomes points out that there are already projects with open calls from CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), the Ministry of Science and Technology and Finep (Financier of Studies and Projects) that will be impacted by the contingency of FNDCT resources.
“In a very common language, it’s a bunch of bad checks”, says the executive secretary of the ICTPBr. “Just this week I signed an agreement with the CNPq to retain young doctors. These programs, in partnership with state foundations, are completely threatened.”
Scientific entities have stated that government actions involving the FNDCT go beyond complementary law 177, of 2021. Article 11, paragraph 3, states that “the budgetary allocation of amounts from sources linked to the FNDCT in contingency reserves is prohibited “.
In a note signed by dozens of national scientific associations, the president of the SBPC (Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science), Renato Janine Ribeiro, states that this provisional measure is part of a succession of “arbitrary acts by which the Presidency of the Republic annuls or suspends the execution of laws passed by Congress”.
In addition to the MP currently being contested, the Fapeal representative recalls the so-called “Scrap MP” (MP 1112 of March 31, 2022), sent to Congress by the government and approved in the Legislative Houses in early August. In this case, resources from oil companies that should go to oil and gas research activities will be transferred to finance the dismantling and scrapping of heavy vehicles over 30 years old.
Scientific entities are now pressuring Congress so that the MP that contingencies the FNDCT until 2026 is returned to the Bolsonaro government.
In the Senate, there is already movement for the return to occur. Senator Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM) filed, this Thursday (1st), two requests to press for the return. The decision to return an MP belongs to the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).
