The president of the Commission for National Integration and Regional Development, José Rocha (União Brasil-BA), told Sheet this Friday (27) that parliamentary amendments from its collegiate were not deliberated by the group’s deputies and that there are no minutes of approval of these nominations.
The parliamentarian, who was summoned by the PF () to speak at the inquiry investigating the issue, stated that the head of the Chamber, (-AL), gave information that “is not correct and is not true” to the STF about such deliberations.
“He (Lira) did not send to the committee what the minister himself (, of ) started to request, that the Chamber send the authors of the nominations and the objects of the amendments”, he stated.
The minutes of this Friday’s committees, if there were any, as one of the conditions for the Chamber to make possible the commitments of the amendments relating to the current year.
The Chamber of R$4.2 billion in committee amendments followed guidance from the Lula (PT) government and that an ordinance published by the Executive allowed party leaders to present themselves as authors of amendment nominations.
In August, the court’s plenary decided 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.
When contacted to comment on Rocha’s statements, Lira’s office responded with the same letter sent to the STF.
José Rocha also said that he asked the mayor and made a statement to the college of leaders to identify the beneficiaries, authors and objects of these amendments, but that he did not receive these answers.
After that, he said that he called a meeting of his committee for the 12th of this month so that the list could be deliberated by the collegiate, but that the meeting was suspended by Lira until the end of the recess.
The parliamentarian also confirmed that he received a ready list with the directions of the amendments from a trusted advisor to Lira.
which showed that the group distributed billions of dollars worth of amendments according to guidelines passed on by this advisor, and with an unknown destination for members of the collegiate itself.
“I only signed the letter that was already sent from Lira. I received a draft, I just had to sign it”, he declared.
as to Sheet In July, the commission also showed R$1.1 billion in available resources. The state is Lira’s base, which maintains control over commission negotiations.
The group’s president also said that he told Lira that the practice would not be correct, but that he then threatened to take his position away.
“He (Lira) replied that I was creating a problem and that this was already a decision of free resources and that I could even be removed from the commission as president of the commission by a motion of no confidence. I told him to respect me”, he stated.
The deputy also stated that Lira removed the committee’s secretary from her position after she refused, in accordance with her orders, to deliver the list of amendments sent by the president of the Chamber to the Ministry of National Integration and Regional Development, which is the department that executes the amendments.
“The correct way for this to be done was what I tried to do: gather the commission, deliberate the majority of the commission, and then send it to the ministry, with these indications from the college of leaders. Submit approval to the commission and then release it to the ministry. This was not done because he (Lira) did not allow it”, he said.
The parliamentarian added that Dino’s decision on requests for information about the amendments was “very correct”. “The amendments have to be transparent, you have to know which deputy is nominating, what the object is, what is going to be done, which body is going to execute it”, he stated.
