A makes a fine-toothed comb over parliamentarians presented by 92 politicians who have or had a mandate in order to decide whether to request the opening of new investigations in the (Supreme Federal Court) to investigate possible crimes, such as corruption and malfeasance.
At the same time, the cities and entities that received these resources are rushing to try to regularize their situations and prevent the lack of data on the use of amendments from becoming a problem.
The PF’s analysis began in September following an order from the Supreme Court minister. It was based on a technical note from the (Federal Audit Court) on individual amendments by deputies and senators to the Budget, presented from 2020 to 2024.
The TCU points out that, until September 1st of this year, 148 amendments with a total value of R$85 million allocated by parliamentarians had not been registered on the government platform that deals with the topic. The document after the STF decision.
These amendments were proposed by parliamentarians from 15 states. A significant part of the amount (R$27 million) comes from deputies and senators.
Based on this data, Dino ordered the PF to launch investigations for each state, to investigate “the possible practice of the following criminal offenses: malfeasance, disobedience to court orders, irregular use of public funds, embezzlement, corruption, among others that are revealed during the course of the investigations.”
“I emphasize that such inquiries will initially be processed by this Supreme Court, given that the facts narrated may be related to parliamentary deliberations, requiring caution to avoid any blemish that violates the prerogatives of the members of the National Congress.”
With the decision, federal police began to analyze the resources described in the TCU’s technical note. In principle, the PF does not investigate parliamentarians, but investigates whether there were irregularities in the places to which the funds were sent. However, it cannot be ruled out that the investigations involve names that have or had a mandate in the Chamber or.
After Dino’s decision, the investigative body began an assessment of which situations may or may not be subject to investigation.
The police are also analyzing the possibility of uniting investigations involving amendments that were destined for the same locations or that were sent by the same parliamentarians into a single investigation.
The cases that eventually become investigations must join similar ones that are already being processed and that have motivated operations on deviations in amendments in recent years.
According to TCU data, the politician who allocated the most resources that resulted in transfers without a work plan, until September 1st, was former deputy Bosco Saraiva, who was from Solidariedade-AM.
He is currently superintendent of the Manaus Free Trade Zone. R$7.9 million were allocated to investments in the municipalities of Maués (two amendments, of R$1.9 million and R$4 million), Itamarati (R$500 thousand) and Santo Antônio do Içá (R$1.5 million). Bosco Saraiva is not investigated.
Of these three municipalities, only Santo Antônio do Içá gave a justification for the use of the money, after sending the technical note from the court of accounts to the PF.
The municipality informed that the R$ 1.5 million amendment would be used to purchase a “vessel (sports/recreational type boat) to assist in the activities of the Municipal Department of Education and Culture in riverside communities”.
When contacted by the report, Bosco Saraiva stated that he contacted those responsible when he became aware that the accounts were still outstanding.
“I contacted the recipients so that they could take the appropriate measures to resolve the outstanding issues relating to these accounts and received information from these entities that such measures were in progress,” he said.
Also contacted, the city halls of Maués and Itamarati did not respond.
The state with the highest number of amendments under scrutiny is São Paulo: 39, with a total value of R$14.7 million, without the presentation of a work plan. Next come Amazonas (23 amendments), Bahia (22), Maranhão (14) and Minas Gerais (11).
The accumulation of investigations into deviations from parliamentary amendments in the Supreme Court is one of the main points of tension in the relationship between Congress and the Judiciary in recent years. The inquiries took off after Dino chose the issue as one of his cabinet’s priorities.
Due to court decisions, parliamentary amendments are now only released upon presentation of a work plan that specifies how the money will be used.
The new determination mainly affected special transfers to states and municipalities — popularly known as Pix amendments —, a mechanism created by Congress to speed up the release of resources, but which has gaps in its transparency and traceability.
Dino indicated that he should take the judgment on the merits of the actions that question the constitutionality of the amendments to the Supreme Court’s plenary session soon. He requested a statement from the AGU (Attorney General’s Office) and the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) on the topic.
