Less developed cities received proportionally more, considered of low transparency, than more developed cities, points out a survey made by the Sheet with the values distributed by deputies and senators to each municipality in 2023 and 2024.
This type of amendment, which goes directly to municipalities, to specific projects, represents almost half (47%) of resources transferred to cities with MHDI (Municipal Human Development Index) “low” or “very low”. In the case of municipalities with “high” or “very high” index, this proportion is 32%.
The analysis considers the individual amendments destined by the congressmen – to count the features of bench or commission – which have been committed in the last two years, of mandatory execution by the Lula Government (PT).
In absolute numbers, this means that it is not possible to know, by the portal of federal transparency, where R $ 3.9 billion of the R $ 8.3 billion donated by parliamentarians to the poorest cities were used during this period or R $ 4.6 billion Of the R $ 14.6 billion delivered to the richest cities.
Marina ATOJI, from NGO Transparency Brazil, says that smaller or less structured municipalities often seek this modality of amendment because it has faster release. Deputies, in turn, also prefer to send them to show results to the voter.
“In the case of the special transfer amendment [Pix] It is only the municipality to say ‘aware’, indicate the account and the bank, and the appeal will enter the cashier. Already the amendment for defined purpose has to undergo project approval, execution reports, and can still have technical impediment, “he says.
“So the mayors of smaller or less structured cities speak: For God’s sake, it does not send me amendment for a defined purpose, and many deputies were already mayors,” says ATOJI, remembering that slowness was one of the justifications for the creation of amendments Pix in 2019. “The problem is that municipalities have no transparency.”
The value of parliamentary amendments in general since 2020. They have become the main deputies and senators on their electoral bases and are used as in negotiations between Congress and Executive, both under () and in.
The influence of pix amendments has expanded especially in the last year ,. But, on the one hand, this amount comes more agile, on the other, it can enhance the favoring of political allies and open a breach for deviations of money.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office, for example, to monitor such funds sent to at least 400 municipalities and three state governments.
The analysis of Sheet He crossed the so -called “commitment notes” of the amendments – which they detail, for example, if the same donation went to more than one city – with the MHDI of Atlas Brazil, which takes into account longevity, education and income. Despite being from 2010, it is still the most up -to -date index available at the municipal level.
The survey points out that 111 of the 5,565 municipalities in the country received 100% of their individual amendments in Pix modality, without prior binding to projects over the last two years. Of these, 41 have a “low” development index (there are no “very low” HDI cities in this situation).
The three of them that benefited most were Afonso Cunha and Peritoró, in the interior of Maranhão, and Choró, in the Sertão do Ceará. The first has just over 6,000 inhabitants and committed R $ 14.8 million, representing R $ 2,400 per person, 5 times higher than the country’s average (R $ 438 per inhabitant).
“The calculation is not for the population, but for improvements to the municipality,” says former mayor Archimedes Bacelar (PDT), whose family founded the city. “If I get an amendment from Caixa Econômica, I will face a line for analysis and go two years to approve a project,” he argues, who elected his ally Pedro Medeiros (PL).
The former mayor criticizes what he calls politicization of the theme of amendments and states that special transfers greatly help small municipalities: “Few funds and federal programs encompass cities with less than 20,000 inhabitants. If we are not until Brasilia after appeal” .
In 2022, he published that his management inflated the number of consultations and exams performed by in 2020 to receive more funds the following year, which made the court block the transfers. Bacelar says it was a system error, that an audit found that there was no deviation and is one of the advocates of the highest inspection.
FGV professor Graziella Testa, a specialist in legislative studies, opines that the way the control bodies were structured in Brazil had a negative impact on public policies, with cast and fearful managers in spending – a thesis known as “blackouts pens “.
“A part of the explanation [para a alta porcentagem de emendas Pix] It may be these managers finding a way to apply funds in areas where they could not. It is necessary to do a closer study to separate the chaff from the wheat: see what the manager applied and what is deviation of appeal, “he says.
At the end of last year, after a clash with the Supreme Court (STF), to increase the transparency of PIX amendments, which cannot be used for personnel expenses, must have 70% applied to investments and are mandatory execution by Plateau.
Now, deputies and senators of the amendments need to inform the object and value of transfers in advance, which should preferably go to unfinished works. They are also subject to evaluations of the (Federal Court of Audit).
In early 2024, the agency published a standard determining that the beneficiaries of these resources inserted management reports on the site transferv.br, until July of the year following receipt. According to ATOJI, from Transparency Brazil, this can expand transparency from this year, if followed.
