The decision of the minister of the (Federal Supreme Court) provoked a reaction from leaders of the , who complain about the lack of dialogue and talk about an escalation in the crisis.
Parliamentarians complain in particular about the decision to open an investigation into the release of resources. The action was seen as above tone and media, according to congressmen interviewed by the report.
Flávio Dino responded to the representation, which presented new facts regarding the payment of commission amendments — the target of criticism and previous decisions by the minister himself due to the lack of transparency.
The representation cites a letter sent to the federal government and signed by 17 party leaders from the Chamber of Deputies. The document detailed the indication of 5,449 committee amendments.
This set of amendments totals R$4.2 billion and would be distributed, according to PSOL, “without prior approval and formal registration by the commissions, under the pretext of ‘ratifying’ the indications previously presented by the members of the commissions.”
In practice, as Piauí magazine revealed, the list of 17 party leaders in the Chamber changed the allocation of committee amendments, without approval from the collegiate bodies. The letter with the new destination was sent to the government () on the 12th, and the Civil House approved the maneuver.
Among the signatories of the list with more than 5 thousand nominations are the government leader in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE), PT’s Odair Cunha (MG), and the candidate for president of the House, (PB) . The head of the Chamber, (-AL), would be the guarantor of the initiative.
The state most benefited from the allocation of R$4.2 billion would be Alagoas — land of Lira, with almost R$500 million.
The maneuver carried out in the Chamber failed to comply with STF determinations regarding the amendments. In August, the court’s plenary ruled that the funds could only be released if there was total transparency and traceability, which includes the identification of the congressmen who suggested the allocation of the money.
It was made possible, however, by loopholes left by the government in the ordinance that regulated the payment of parliamentary amendments.
Flávio Dino’s decision generated a series of complaints from party leaders behind the scenes, as well as concern at Palácio do Planalto. although he participated in the agreement, he fears a reprisal when he returns from recess, particularly considering that the 2025 budget still needs to be voted on.
In the Chamber, some deputies and leaders are already asking for extraordinary sessions and meetings to prepare a response to the STF minister. Lira, however, chose to remain silent and, when questioned by the report, did not comment on Dino’s decision.
In private, the leader of an important group complained about the lack of dialogue between the House and minister Flávio Dino. For him, it would be possible to prevent decisions like this from causing an escalation in the crisis.
He points out that Dino could, for example, simply have suspended payment of the amendments and determined in a separate order that the investigation be opened by the Federal Police. The view is that the minister wanted to give a character described as mediatic by including the opening of the inquiry.
On the other hand, there are also complaints about the actions of Lira and the Lula government itself in the episode regarding the office. A leader points out that the leaders signed the letter to unlock the release of the amendments, in what would be a ratification of the amendments already defined.
Therefore, they trusted the actions of Lira and the government leader, José Guimarães, and now they saw the Chamber exposed with the complaint that there had been a change in the allocation of the amendments.
On the government side, there is concern in several ways. The Palácio do Planalto, at the time it was progressing with the implementation of the amendments, already felt the fear that Flávio Dino could act against the committee amendments.
One of the concerns is that Dino, in addition to suspending payments, determined the identification of the Union employees who gave approval for the operations. In other words, a sign that there may be individual responsibility for members of the federal public administration, which escalates the situation.
Furthermore, Dino’s decision not only suspends the payment of these amendments but also leads to a situation in which parliamentarians practically lose control over these resources. This is because the letter was not for payment of the amendments, but for them to be committed – when the government reserves the resources.
With the end of the fiscal year, parliamentarians pressed for these amendments to be included in the Budget, as a commitment, so that they could be paid in 2025 as outstanding payments. This shouldn’t happen.
Planalto’s analysis is that the political impact should only be felt after the parliamentary recess, in February. The main concern is with the Budget, which is why the government will try to shield the Joint Budget Committee to prevent any revolts from disrupting the progress of the machine.
THE AMENDMENTS AND THE STF
At the end of 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the rapporteur’s amendments — a mechanism by which parliamentarians allocated billions of reais to their electoral bases without identifying themselves as owners of the funds.
To circumvent the restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court, the Congress leadership decided to boost commission amendments in 2023, thus maintaining control over the billion-dollar budget.
The value of this type of amendment grew 300% last year, reaching R$7.6 billion. In 2024, Congress doubled the amount and set it at more than R$15 billion.
In this way, Congress managed to maintain the escalation of parliamentary amendments, a movement that has gained strength since the (PL) government.
This year alone, Congress had almost R$52 billion to distribute, according to political criteria without transparency. The main amounts relate to individual amendments (R$25.1 billion), committee amendments (R$15.5 billion) and bench amendments (R$8.5 billion). There are also R$2.7 billion in amendments to government programming.
Flávio Dino saw the turbocharged commission amendments as a way for Congress to maintain unconstitutional control over billions of reais in the Budget, with execution without transparency and traceability.
One of the main problems highlighted by the minister was the impossibility of knowing who the sponsor of the money was. This is because, although commission amendments are approved collectively, the allocation of the funds generally responds to specific requests from parliamentarians, following political agreements.
For this reason, Dino decided in August to suspend payment for parliamentary amendments and demanded a reform in the execution of this amount, to guarantee transparency and traceability. The Supreme Court plenary approved the measures.
The decision opened a crisis between Congress, the government and the Supreme Court, who tried to reach agreements to solve the problem. Although most of the amendments were released at the beginning of this month, it is still not certain whether the allocation of the money will not suffer setbacks in 2025.
