[ad_1]
The Ministry of Infrastructure had to give up R $ 1.2 billion in funds from a judicial agreement to pay for the works of line 2 of the Belo Horizonte metro without going through the Budget or the National Treasury, according to the State / Broadcasting. The maneuver was announced by the minister of the portfolio, Tarcsio de Freitas, it drew the attention of technicians from the economic area and raised suspicions of haggling over tax regulations.
The recession came after Economy technicians warned of the need to include both the income from the agreement and the expenditure on works in the 2021 budget proposal, with the risk of violating laws if the expenditure is executed outside the Budget. The issue was discussed in a meeting today between the Civil House, Infrastructure and Economy.
At the center of the impasse is the Union’s compensation for uneconomic sections of the Central Atlantic Railroad (FCA), which would initially be used in railway works and will now be redirected to the metro. As the report showed, the “procedure” defended by Infrastructure, according to Tarcsio, would involve an account at BNDES that would receive the funds instead of the single Treasury account.
“What is the procedure we are working on at the moment: the creation of an account, linked to this project in the BNDES, and the flow of money instead of falling into the Treasury account would fall directly into that account, which will it be used specifically to compose the counterpart? of the State in the public-private association of the metro This gives an effective guarantee that the resource will be used in the BH metro ”, explained Tarcsio when announcing the proposal.
The announcement of the agreement was celebrated by President Jair Bolsonaro on Twitter. “The creativity and determination of the Ministry of Infrastructure will make line 2 of the BH metro viable,” the president wrote. “Creativity to provide infrastructure”, commented Tarcsio in the same social network.
Initially, the Office of the Attorney General of the Union (AGU) sent an Economy question on the subject, but the response was generalized that it would not be possible for the portfolio to comment on the agreement. According to the report, the budget areas were not heard. Now, after the controversy, the Attorney General’s Office of the National Treasury (PGFN) formally requested a position from the Federal Budget Secretariat (SOF).
Metro spending can still be included in the 2021 Budget, which is being processed by Congress, cutting other spending. The procedure has already been adopted in other agreements signed by the Union, such as in the case of returns of funds diverted in corruption schemes and recovered by Operation Lava Jato. The agreement guaranteed a kind of linkage of money for use in actions such as the fight against deforestation and education, but everything was registered in the Budget.
Requested, the Ministry of Economy confirmed that “the respective income and expenses must enter the Budget.” The ministry said that even the income from the agreement is already on the schedule for this year (R $ 332 million) and in the forecast for 2021 (also R $ 332 million).
According to the Economy, today the values are destined to studies, works and / or services related to the railway sector due to the current agreement, but there are negotiations for “a more specific work” of the budget.
“Depending on the result of this addendum, it may be necessary to change the allocation of these resources provided for in the PLOA 2021 through a change request during the process in the National Congress or through a complementary credit with the allocation of appropriations during the year 2021,” he said Economy.
