The Federal Police launched this Tuesday (13) a new phase of operation Overclean, which investigates a criminal organization suspected of embezzling parliamentary amendments, corruption and money laundering. This action marks a significant advance in the crackdown on irregularities involving public resources, especially at a critical moment in the Brazilian political calendar. The analysis is by Clarissa Oliveira, at the Live CNN.
“The Federal Police operation launched today, which is another phase of an operation that has been ongoing for a long time, culminates this PF siege against deviations from parliamentary amendments, in a crucial year, as it is an election year”, Clarissa pointed out.
The operation directly targets , which is in its fourth term and has been affiliated with the PDT since 2011. The Federal Supreme Court, through Minister Cássio Nunes Marques, authorized nine and ordered the blocking of R$24 million in bank accounts of individuals and legal entities under investigation.
Historical record of amendments
The progress of the investigations occurs in a scenario of record release of parliamentary amendments. In 2026, the government released approximately R$61 billion for this purpose, an unprecedented amount in Brazilian history. “A historic record that reflects the difficulty of President Lula’s government in ensuring the advancement of its strategic agenda without this composition with the Legislature”, explained the analyst.
Pressure from parliamentarians to increase the release of amendments has been increasingly intense, without necessarily guaranteeing transparency in the process. Despite successive decisions by Minister Flávio Dino demanding rigor and transparency in the execution of these resources, the amendment distribution mechanism continues to reinvent itself to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the Judiciary.
“Minister Flávio Dino’s decisions greatly strained the relationship between the Judiciary and the National Congress, due to this insistence of our Judiciary in demanding transparency and rigor in complying with the payment of these resources in the way they are actually executed”, stated Clarissa Oliveira.
Problem history
It is just the tip of the iceberg of a structural problem in the relationship between the Executive and Legislative in Brazil. Throughout the different governments, the mechanisms to guarantee governability were transformed: from the monthly allowance in the first term of the Lula government, through Petrolão during the Dilma Rousseff government, to the secret budget in the government of Jair Bolsonaro.
“When we look at the records of the most recent governments, we see that the way of guaranteeing governability, even if through absolutely shady means, is being reinvented government after government”, said the analyst: “The reading I would make about it is almost a transfer of responsibility, because President Lula’s government seems to have taken its hand off any scheme and passed the responsibility on to the parliamentarians themselves”.
The current administration appears to have adopted a different strategy, releasing record amounts in parliamentary amendments, but apparently transferring responsibility for the legal execution of these resources to the parliamentarians themselves. This dynamic has generated tension between the powers, especially with the Judiciary, which has demanded greater transparency in the use of public money.
