For the president of the Senate, criticism disregards the results of investments made possible by the resources sent by deputies and senators to their electoral basis
The president of the Senate, (União Brasil-AP), said on Tuesday (26) that parliamentary amendments should not be “criminalized”. The statement occurs two days after the Federal Supreme Court Minister () determined the opening of a Federal Police inquiry () to investigate the destination of R $ 694.7 million in pixed amendments passed without work plan.
“We have to have a lot of balance, a lot of maturity, a lot of weight and stop criminalizing the criminal amendments, which are an investment and development instrument of the most needy regions of Brazil,” said Alcolumbre during a hearing on tax spending held in the House of Representatives.
According to the president of the Senate, the criticism disregard the results of the investments made possible by the resources sent by deputies and senators to their electoral bases.
The investigation authorized by Flávio Dino Mira 964 individual special transfer amendments, known as “pix amendments”. The values calculated were allocated between 2020 and 2024, but did not have the work plans recorded, which characterizes non -compliance with the previous decision of the Supreme Court, according to the minister.
The magistrate gave ten working days for the Federal Court of Audit (TCU) to identify which amendments are linked to the 964 pending work plans and transfer the information to the PF to open an inquiry.
It was through “pix amendments” that cities without electricity structure, basic sanitation, asphalt and primary health received millions from the Union budget for hiring singers’ shows on the eve of the election campaign.
The “pix amendment”, officially called “special transfer”, is a device that allows us to allocate funds from the Union budget more quickly to states and municipalities. This type of amendment, however, lacks means of transparency and inspection.
According to a preliminary study of the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), parliamentary amendments have been used primarily for electoral purposes, not for public policies. Ipea report points out that in less than ten years (2014 to 2023), expenses committed by parliamentary amendments went from $ 2.7 million to $ 125 million.
Previously, the amendments depended on the approval of the federal government, which had autonomy to authorize or deny the payment. A series of changes in budget laws have made the payment of amendments mandatory. In practice, deputies and senators began to control the destination of billions of reais without having to negotiate with ministers.
The amount approved for parliamentary amendments in 2025 of R $ 50.4 billion exceeds the sum of free resources for 30 of the 39 ministries.
*With information from Estadão Content
Posted by Nátaly Tenório
