A technical meeting was held this Wednesday (August 21) at the STF to present measures aimed at ending the “secret budget”; PGR and AGU have 10 days to respond
THE STF (Supreme Federal Court) released this Wednesday (Aug 21, 2024) a report prepared by a technical subcommittee to identify ways to ensure the correct application of public resources coming from committee amendments (RP8) and rapporteur amendments (RP9), following transparency and traceability criteria.
The document presents suggestions (read more below) to improve the control system and avoid the so-called “Secret Budget”, through detailed information on which data on amendments are available to the public, where they are, the volume of resources, among others. Here is the full (PDF – 48.6 MB).
The report proposes, for example, that the Executive migrate the entire payment system for parliamentary amendments to Transfere.gov, to expand the tracking of resources and enable the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) and the TCU (Federal Court of Auditors) access data in real time.
The change aims to solve the problem of fund-to-fund transfers of rapporteur amendments (RP9). In other words, when public resources leave the Union fund at the request of congressmen and are lost in municipal funds.
Minister Flávio Dino, rapporteur of the actions on the amendments in the STF, determined that the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) and the AGU (Attorney General’s Office) express their views on the document within 10 days.
On August 6, Dino scheduled a meeting for this Wednesday (August 21) to present the report to a committee composed of representatives from the STF’s Structural and Complex Processes Center, CGU, TCU and other entities in the meeting room of the Court’s presidency.
The document was prepared taking into account the questions raised at the conciliation hearing called by Flávio Dino. They are:
- What data exists and what data does not exist?
- What data is available for public access and in some location?
- Who are the holders of the unpublished information?
- What public policies are harmed by the suspension of the amendments determined by Minister Flávio Dino’s decision?
- which can continue because they have met the requirements of the Court’s decision?
The meeting, in the session room of the 1st Chamber of the STF, was attended by representatives of the PGR, the AGU, the Senate, the Chamber, the TCU, the CGU, the Psol (Socialism and Liberty Party), author of the action (ADPF 854) in the STF, and others.
“SECRET BUDGET”
The call “Secret budget” This is how the rapporteur amendments, or RP-9, became known, which allowed congressmen to allocate federal resources, but which were not detailed in the budget execution control system – however, it is not “secret”.
On December 19, 2022, the STF, by 6 votes to 5, declared the rapporteur’s amendments unconstitutional. At the time, the ministers agreed that there was a lack of transparency in the allocation of resources through this modality.
Before scheduling the conciliation hearing on the amendments, Dino had already asked the presidents of the Republic, Chamber and Senate to provide information on the subject and declared that “the interest of the Legislative and Executive Branches in complying with court orders is evident”.
In May, the Chamber denied any failure to comply with the decision.
However, he states that he is faced with “facts that still require definitive clarification”.
IMPASSE ON AMENDMENTS
On Tuesday (20th August), the Three Powers reached a consensus that parliamentary amendments must follow “criteria of transparency, traceability and correctness”.
The imbroglio over the Pix amendments increased tension between Congress, the Executive and the STF after Minister Flávio Dino accepted, on August 8, an action by the PGR to suspend transfers of this type.
THE AGREEMENT
In notice released by the STF on Tuesday (20th August), it was reported that all mandatory amendments will be maintained, but each one will have criteria to follow in order to be committed and executed.
In relation to these amendments, it was also agreed that the money will be prioritized for unfinished works and the rendering of accounts before the TCU.
Committee amendments, in turn, must be allocated to projects of national or regional interest, defined by mutual agreement between the Legislative and Executive branches, according to procedures to be established within 10 days.
The bench amendments will be allocated to structural projects in each State and in the Federal District, according to the definition of the party benches, individualization being prohibited.
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