Linked to the Ministry of Communications, the state-owned company used part of the 2024 budget to cover 2023 expenses
Linked to the Ministry of Communications, Telebras would have transferred expenses from 2023 to the 2024 budget, resulting in a fiscal pedaling of R$ 77 million. The information was obtained by the news portal UOL via request made by LAI (Access to Information Law) and published this Thursday (12.Sep.2024).
The practice is considered irregular by the TCU (Federal Court of Auditors), and can be classified as administrative impropriety and a crime of responsibility.
With a budget of R$612 million in 2023, Telebras requested additional resources from the Ministries of Communications and Planning, which were denied. After the denial, the state-owned company postponed a series of commitments until 2024.
According to the UOLas the company had expenses that needed to be covered with last year’s budget, but had no funds, the state-owned company stopped setting aside resources to pay suppliers. However, it did not stop consuming services, artificially increasing its budget by 12%.
After consuming the 2023 budget, Telebras used part of the 2024 resources to cover expenses incurred last year.
OTHER SIDE
THE Poder360 contacted the Ministry of Communications to ask if it would like to comment on the case. The ministry said that all strategic and operational decisions of Telebras are the responsibility of “sole responsibility” of the state-owned company itself, and not of the ministry, since it is a publicly traded company that has its own board of directors and board of directors. Read the full response at the end of this text.
This digital newspaper also contacted Telebras and the TCU by email to ask if they would like to comment on the case. There was no response by the time this report was published. The text will be updated if a statement is sent.
FISCAL PEDALING
Fiscal pedaling is the maneuvers carried out by the Executive Branch to meet fiscal targets, making it appear that there was a balance between expenditure and expenses in public accounts.
The practice led to an action for administrative misconduct against the then president Dilma Rousseff (PT), which resulted in his impeachment in 2016.
Read the full note sent by the Ministry of Communications this Thursday (12.Sep):
“Telebras, as a publicly traded company, has a duly constituted board of directors and administration. Therefore, all strategic and operational decisions are the exclusive responsibility of these bodies – and not of the Ministry of Communications.
“The Ministry of Communications clarifies that Telebras is a state-owned company that was scrapped between 2019 and 2022 to be privatized by the previous administration. One of the consequences of this process was the accumulation of debts with suppliers, a problem that is being addressed by the current administration, after its withdrawal from the National Privatization Program.
“The department reports that, for the 2024 and 2025 budgets, sufficient resources were requested for Telebras to fulfill its obligations, in addition to requesting, during the year, the release of resources to pay off debts with suppliers.
“The requests are analyzed by the JEO (Budget Execution Board) – formed by the Ministries of Planning and Budget; Management and Innovation; Finance; and Civil House – with the set of demands from the various federal agencies and defines what will be met, according to the fiscal limitations of the general budget of the Union.
“For 2025, for example, a budget of R$1.2 billion was requested for the company, but in the annual budget bill, given the limitations of economic policy, R$586 million is included. In 2024, due to the restrictive scenario, the request was for R$1.3 billion, however, the amount approved was R$549 million, of which R$343.8 million has been released to date.”
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