By Maria Carolina Marcello
BRASILIA (Reuters) – On Monday, the National Congress approved a draft resolution that seeks to provide transparency to the so-called amendments to the Budget and that sets a limit on the resources to be used by this instrument, which by 2022 would reach 16.2 billion of reais.
Edited in the wake of what became known as the “secret budget”, the draft resolution is intended to meet the decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which after provocation by parliamentarians and political parties determined greater transparency on the destination of the rapporteur’s amendments.
Authored by senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), the approved substitute authorizes the general rapporteur of the Budget to present the amendments.
“It is proposed that this maximum limit corresponds to the sum of the values defined by the Federal Constitution for individual amendments and for the imposing amendments of the state bench”, says the rapporteur, in the opinion.
The Budget Law Project for 2022 foresees 10.5 billion reais for individual amendments and 5.7 billion reais for bench amendments, which is equivalent to a ceiling for rapporteur amendments of 16.2 billion reais.
The editing of these amendments may meet the demands of parliamentarians, public agents or civil society. According to the text, these indications must be published individually and made available in a report on the Internet by the Mixed Budget Commission (CMO) and forwarded to the Executive Branch.
The destination of the rapporteur’s amendments came up again amidst the vote of the PEC dos Precatórios in the Chamber of Deputies. Opposition members and parliamentarians opposed to the Constitution Amendment Proposal (PEC) pointed out the use of the rapporteur’s amendments as a bargaining chip for votes in favor of the controversial matter.
Parliamentarians and political parties appealed to the STF, which decided to suspend the execution of these amendments, which are difficult to track the resources, and determined that their release obey more transparent rules.
The new rules provided for in the draft resolution under discussion this Monday in Congress, however, will only be valid from their approval, and do not deal with the resources already released.
In the case of amendments this year and the previous year, a normative act of the two Houses was edited, but it was the target of criticism.
“The joint act of Congress says that there is no way, amazingly enough, to say what it was that caused 17 billion reais last year to be spent as they were. They said that the rapporteur has no way of knowing, he does not remember how this money was spent. Does anyone believe that? It is obvious that Congress has all the information to say who asked, how much they asked for, what they asked for and what was given or not”, said the leader of the opposition in the Chamber, Deputy Alessandro Molon (PSB-RJ).
Parliamentarians also questioned the legality of the session held on Monday, pointing out that the Congress’ agenda is locked by presidential vetoes and that the draft resolution could not be deliberated.
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