10/10/2024 – 21:48
The conciliation meeting called by STF minister Flávio Dino on Thursday morning (10) regarding parliamentary amendments ended without agreement. As a result, payments for individual tax amendments, commission amendments and Pix amendments continue to be blocked. All these types of amendments to the Budget were suspended by Dino in August – later, the decisions were confirmed by the STF plenary.
Parliamentary amendments are modifications made to the Annual Budget Law (LOA) by deputies and senators, to allocate federal money to the cities where their voters live. When Dino ordered the amendments to be blocked, payments had already been suspended due to the municipal elections – the Elections Law prohibits voluntary transfers from the Union to municipalities in the three months before the election. Now, without the electoral seal, the tendency is for Congress to increase pressure to release resources.
Flávio Dino did not participate in the Thursday morning meeting. The meeting was led by an assistant judge from his office, Amanda Thomé, and by an assistant judge from the presidency of the STF, Trícia Navarro – the Chamber and Senate also sent representatives, as well as the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), the Comptroller’s Office – General of the Union (CGU) and the highest body of the Public Ministry, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
During the meeting, Congress representatives reiterated that they do not have any more information about the “godfathers” of the rapporteur’s amendments. Declared unconstitutional by the STF at the end of 2022, these amendments are the basis of the secret budget practice, revealed by the Estadão in 2021. CGU representatives said that the letters delivered by Congress only show the “godfathers” of 44% of resources released through the Secret Budget – another 56% remain hidden.
The letters concern the nominations of 360 deputies and 69 senators, but some of the main chiefs of the secret budget did not send the information, such as former Senate president Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP). The CGU also said that tracking the indications of these 44% was done using an automated method, but that the body “cannot guarantee accuracy unless the legislature makes the data available”.
Still during the meeting, according to those present, Flávio Dino’s assistant judge said that the STF is trying to build a consensual solution to, in fact, put an end to the secret budget – but, if the information is not provided to the satisfaction of the Legislature, a A new court decision is not ruled out. The Chamber and Senate committed to submitting a list of congressmen who were in office at the time and who did not provide data on their nominations to the STF. However, they made the reservation that it is possible that these congressmen did not make any indication of rapporteur amendments.
Legislative representatives also said that the Chamber and Senate are working with the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic to prepare a complementary bill (PLP) that meets Dino’s other determinations for the amendments. The minister demanded, for example, that bench amendments be used for structural works, instead of being spread across city halls.
Failure to comply with a decision is “serious and unacceptable”, says Dino
Dino said this Thursday, the 10th, that “the situation of non-compliance with the decision that declared the unconstitutionality of the secret budget in 2022 “remains serious and unacceptable”. He kept the execution of the committee amendments (RP8) and the rapporteur’s amendments (RP9) suspended ) until the Legislative and Executive present effective measures to identify the authorship of the amendments and provide transparency and traceability to the transfers.
“In view of the shortcomings in compliance with judicial determinations, it remains unfeasible to reestablish the full execution of parliamentary amendments in the current fiscal year of 2024, until the Legislative and Executive Powers are able to fully comply with the constitutional order and the decisions of the STF Plenary” , stated Dino in the decision.
The decision was made after the conciliation meeting held this morning, in which Dino did not participate.
The minister highlighted that Congress limited itself to pointing out that the solutions will be defined through a Complementary Bill, the processing of which has not yet begun. In relation to the Executive, Dino considered that “objective” responses were presented.
According to the minister, both this process and those dealing with the “pix amendments” will be “timely presented to the STF Plenary” as soon as the requested documents and a new law that is compatible with the Constitution are presented. “As rapporteur, I hope this happens as quickly as necessary and in line with the relevant controversies discussed in the case”, he concluded.
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