Deputies approve proposal that takes R $ 1.4 billion from education and frees resources for works | Politics

Senators have yet to analyze the text, which should take place in a session scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Due to the pandemic, sessions of Congress have been conducted using a remote voting system that requires the votes of deputies and senators to be taken separately.

The proposal approved by the deputies authorizes the relocation and use of reserves for contingencies, which together amount to R $ 6.1 billion. These resources will come from seven ministries, the majority (R $ 1.4 billion) from the budget of the Ministry of Education, and from the Presidency of the Republic.

When reallocating resources, the Infrastructure and Regional Development portfolios receive the most. Check the folders that win and those that lose.

• Ministry of Regional Development: R $ 2.3 billion
• Ministry of Infrastructure: R $ 1 billion
• Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply: R $ 50.5 million
• Ministry of Mines and Energy: R $ 286.7 million
• Ministry of Health: R $ 243.6 million

• Ministry of Education: R $ 1.4 billion
• Ministry of Justice and Public Security: R $ 300 million
• Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications: R $ 9.6 million
• Ministry of Economy: R $ 615.6 million
• Ministry of Defense: R $ 330 million
• Ministry of Tourism: R $ 148.7 million
• Ministry of Citizenship: R $ 385.2 million
• Presidency of the Republic: R $ 9.9 million

See the story from September 17 below, which deals with the relocation of resources from the Ministry of Education to the works.

According to the text, the MEC will have a cancellation of resources in the order of R $ 1.56 billion and a supplement of R $ 160 million, resulting in a negative balance of R $ 1.4 billion.

Given the resistance of the opposition parties to approve the project, the president of Congress, Senator Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP), clarified that the government promised to send the Legislative a letter recomposing the resources for the MEC.

The government leader in Congress, Eduardo Gomes (MDB-TO), said the agreement will be fulfilled. “It is clear that we are committed to rebuilding,” he said.

The rapporteur for the article, Senator Marcelo Castro (MDB-PI), argued that the transferred resources are for “important infrastructure works in Brazil.”

“If there were no such complementation, these works would be paralyzed with great damage to the public administration,” he said, in plenary session.

In his report, the senator made changes of action within the ministries of health and regional development, following an agreement between Congress and the government. Although the values ​​of each portfolio do not change, the changes allow, for example, the Health portfolio to spend more on hospital care services than on investments.

At a public hearing in the Senate in September, Education Minister Milton Ribeiro said that the government’s blocking of resources would be “largely” to pay for “parliamentary amendments.”

According to Ribeiro, the government needed to withdraw money from education to transfer it to projects approved by the congressmen themselves, who sent resources to other areas.

Part of the money allocated in this project should be used for generic ministerial programs, which can be used to attend parliamentary elections.

Despite having a similar objective, these resources are not, strictly speaking, parliamentary amendments. They are an extra amount of the Budget that the government allows a part of the parliamentarians to indicate their destination.

The criterion is political, that is, the distribution of these resources is generally used by the government to supply its allied base, in what is called “take it, give it here.”

Parliamentary amendments have different characteristics. One is that each of the 513 deputies and 81 senators have the right to indicate works and actions to receive money from the Budget.

In 2020, each parliamentarian was able to present up to 25 amendments, with a total value of R $ 15.9 million. Mandatory, half must be allocated to actions and public health services.

In the case of amendments, unlike extra resources, it is possible to identify who indicated and where. Another difference is that the payment of modifications is mandatory

Beneficiary ministries

The Ministries of Regional Development and Infrastructure are mainly responsible for federal works throughout the country and, therefore, they are highly sought after by parliamentarians who want to attract resources to their electoral bases.

The portfolio commanded by Marinho receives R $ 2.3 billion for the relocation. The money must be invested in the São Francisco river integration program, in the recovery of hydrographic basins, in Codevasf projects, in the construction of a dam and in the supply of water in drought regions, among other actions.

The Ministry of Infrastructure receives about R $ 1 billion, which will be used, for example, for the construction and maintenance of highways and the implementation of railway sections.

Between supplementation and cancellation, the Ministry of Health has a positive balance of R $ 244 million. The funds must be used in the National Health Fund (FNS) and in the structuring of primary and specialized care networks, through transfers to states and municipalities.

The deputies also approved in the session on Wednesday another 28 projects, which reallocated resources and opened credit in favor of various bodies of the Executive and Judicial Power.

Seven of these projects opened special credit in favor of the Electoral, Federal and Labor courts, in addition to the Federal Public Ministry, the National Council of Justice, the National Council of the Public Ministry, the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice.