06/18/2024 – 7:31
Minister Flávio Dino, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), stated this Monday, 17th, that the Lula government and Congress did not “fully” prove compliance with the Court’s decision that prohibited the secret budget. As shown by the Estadãothe administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva continues to distribute resources to allied parliamentarians without transparency and without criteria, repeating the mechanism that marked the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
Considering the Supreme Court’s “clear command” to overturn the secret budget – a case revealed by Estadão -, Dino scheduled a conciliation hearing for August 1st to discuss “full compliance” with the court’s decision.
“There is no doubt that the Legislative and Executive Powers have broad discretion regarding the destination of budgetary resources, which does not exclude the duty to comply with the principles and procedures contained in the Federal Constitution – including the postulates of publicity and efficiency . Without them, paths are opened leading to multiple forms of accountability, which we seek to prevent with the decision now handed down”, said the minister.
Dino will lead the hearing, which will have the participation of the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, the President of the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU), Bruno Dantas, the Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Messias, representatives of the heads of lawyers for the Chamber and the Senate and a lawyer for the PSOL. The party is the author of the action that culminated in the veto of the secret budget.
Persistence
Former Minister of Justice in the Lula government, Dino inherited the rapporteurship of the process when he took over the chair of Minister Rosa Weber, who led the action on the secret budget in the STF. The decision that Dino signed yesterday came after entities “friends of the Court”, such as Associação Contas Abertas, Transparência Brasil and Transparência Internacional Brasil, pointed out the persistence of secret budget mechanisms in the distribution of parliamentary amendments.
After analyzing the associations’ allegations, the minister asked for statements from Lula and the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG).
‘Pizza amendments’
One of the opinions – that of the Ministry of Planning and Budget – was cited by Dino in his order. The STF minister recalled the government’s response by stating: “It doesn’t matter the packaging or the label (RP 2, RP 8, ‘pizza amendments’). The mere change of nomenclature does not constitutionalize a practice classified as unconstitutional by the STF”.
To the Court, the ministry said that amendments classified as RP 2 in the ministry’s systems “do not present any requirement for the need to indicate the beneficiary nor, nor, for the author of the amendment, to indicate the order of priorities”, according to the decree signed in March 2023 “These allocations do not require any identification of the origin of the amendment,” stated the ministry.
On the other hand, Dino failed to analyze the argument that there would be non-compliance with the decision on the secret budget with the adoption of the so-called “Pix amendments”. He understood that this type of transfer was not the subject of the judgment carried out by the STF in December 2022.
The Pix amendment allows the transfer without the parliamentarian defining how the money should be used by the recipient. Thus, city halls and state governments are free to spend the funds and do not need to be accountable.
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
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