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Credit, Reuters
Even with 15% of the available budget, Ibama paralyzes the fight against fires
On Wednesday night (10/21), Ibama employees were surprised by a circular from Ricardo Vianna Barreto, current head of the National Center for the Prevention and Combat of Forest Fires, PrevFogo. He ordered subordinates in the States to pick up all teams of brigade members from 0:00 am on Thursday (22). According to the Ibama command, there is no money to continue with the work.
The reality, however, is more complex. In 2020, Ibama has R $ 165,888,310.00 authorized to spend on firefighting actions, and of this total, R $ 142,134,343.00 was committed until Wednesday (21). In other words, 14.4% of the amount has not yet been committed.
There is R $ 23,753,967.00 of budget space to fight forest fires. When considering the amounts actually paid, the situation is even worse. So far, R $ 100.3 million have been paid.
The amounts refer to budgetary actions 214M (Prevention and Control of Forest Fires in Federal Priority Areas; and Environmental Monitoring, Prevention and Control of Forest Fires). The BBC News Brazil report chose to ignore the budget actions of the survey that are not directly related to fire fighting, such as the one destined to the construction of the new PrevFogo headquarters.
The information is contained in a spreadsheet extracted from Siop (Integrated Planning and Budgeting System) on Wednesday night (10/21) by a source and is transmitted to the BBC News Brazil report. The data was then verified using another government system, the Siafi (Integrated Financial Management System).
In general terms, Ibama’s budget is R $ 1.8 billion for 2020, and so far around 70% of the amount has been spent.
The work stoppage of the brigades occurs in the midst of one of the worst waves of forest fires ever faced by the country.
Credit, Reuters
Parade in the work of the brigadistas takes place in the middle of one of the worst waves of forest fires ever faced by the country
According to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the country has already registered 11,000 hot spots in the Amazon and another 20,000 in the Pantanal as of Wednesday (21). In the Pantanal, this year’s fires are considered the worst since the late 1990s, when measurements began.
By the middle of last month, the fire had reached more than 2.9 million hectares in the Pantanal, according to the National Center for Prevention and Fighting of Forest Fires (Prevfogo). The number represents about 19% of the biome in Brazil, according to the SOS Pantanal Institute.
Ibama: despite the budget, there is no cash
In a note to the BBC News Brazil report, Ibama reiterated that the work of the brigades was interrupted “due to exhaustion of resources”, and accused the National Treasury Secretariat, a body linked to the Ministry of Economy, of stopping the arrival of money. despite the existence of a budget forecast. The Economy portfolio, in turn, denies it.
“Since September, the autarchy has experienced difficulties with the financial liberation of the National Finance Ministry. To maintain its activities, Ibama has resorted to special credits, funds and amendments. Even so, it already has R $ 19 million in default, which affects all the institute’s boards and actions, including those of Prevfogo, ”the agency said in a note.
On Wednesday afternoon, the president of Ibama, Eduardo Bim, reiterated that the agency does not have money – although there is authorization in the Budget, the resources do not reach Ibama to make the necessary payments. In an interview with the paid television channel GloboNews, Bim said that Ibama contracts have expired due to non-payment.
“As a manager, I cannot spend money that I do not have, nor can I pay. In fact, we have a contract that has not been paid for three months,” he complained.
The National Treasury Secretariat, for its part, denies that it is withholding money. In a note, the agency said there is no blocking of Ibama’s budget allocations. Economy also said that the Environment Ministry defines the order of payment priorities, since Ibama is under the umbrella of the portfolio.
“IBAMA has no blocked value, given that, due to the pandemic, there was no contingency in 2020. There is no difficulty in the financial release of the National Treasury; all amounts legally approved are released immediately following the legal norms, “said the STN, in a note.
“However, it is worth mentioning that IBAMA is treated as a body linked to the MMA, so that payment priorities and financial execution options go through this Ministry (Law 10.180 / 2000). In addition, any request to increase the limit The financial statement is referred to the Budgetary Execution Board (JEO) for deliberation, since it is a judicial decision of another Ministry simultaneously ”, said STN.
In Brazil, the Budget has authority: without budget slack, managers cannot spend the money. On the other hand, the mere existence of an authorization in the Budget does not necessarily mean that the money will be available in the checking account. To spend, both must happen.
Credit, Reuters
Ibama president Eduardo Bim reiterated that the agency has no money
Agustín: Ricardo Salles should solve internally
The president of the Parliamentary Environmentalist Front of Congress, federal deputy Rodrigo Agostinho (PSB-SP) says that the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, should solve the problem internally in the government, instead of taking actions such as paralyzing firefighters.
“The problem should have been resolved internally, but once again Ricardo Salles decided to make a mess in public,” he said.
“Why bring it to the public? Today, the president of Ibama said that they have unpaid debts. In theory, in the public sector you cannot stop paying. For us, it is strange. Brazil still has pockets of fire, including in the Pantanal and in the Amazon. We are going to refer the matter to the Environment Commission to see if there is a crime of responsibility (in the interruption of a fire), ”Agostinho told BBC News Brazil.
“MMA cannot speak simply by saying ‘I will not render the service’. This is an essential service, in a calamity situation. I even think there are a lot of exhausted people in the brigade teams. But enough? The fires are still raging. the country”. , he said.
‘The dismantling of the environmental area is a project,’ says association chief
Elisabeth Uema is executive secretary of the Association of Federal Environmental Servants (Ascema Nacional). According to her, there is an ongoing dismantling in environmental agencies, which both Ricardo Salles and the president of Ibama deny.
“The return of the brigades to the bases must be analyzed in a broader context. In fact, the question of financial resources, which was the argument that was used to call the brigadiers back (…), that argument that they (Ibama) use seems to me to be a half-truth, “he says.
“Today we live in a context of clear dismantling of public institutions to combat and monitor environmental violations. It is a dismantling of the area, as the President of the Republic even clearly stated during the campaign and also after the inauguration, ”criticizes Uema.
“Remembering that both Ibama and ICMBio are not bodies that tax the public administration, because they are bodies that collect. And that is not a small amount. What Ibama collects, only in environmental taxes that end up going to the Treasury, would provide to sustain these The problem is that these resources do not remain. They go to the single Treasury account and then are redistributed to other areas, ”he says.
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