This Tuesday (14) elected deputy Odair Cunha (-MG) as the next minister of the TCU (Federal Audit Court). Cunha received 303 votes. The name will still be analyzed by the Federal.
Odair Cunha has support from the government base, with his alliance being PT, PCdoB, PV, PSB, PDT, PSOL and Rede, as well as a wing from the center, such as the Republicans of the president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (PB), the MDB and part of the PP. The president’s support was part of the agreement that led the PT to support the Paraíba native in the election for the command of the Chamber.
Second place was deputy Elmar Nascimento (União-BA), who received 96 votes. The nominee for the PSDB/Citizenship Federation, Danilo Forte (PP-CE), had 27 votes. Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ) received 20 votes and Gilson Daniel (Pode-ES) received six.
The recommended “useful vote against the PT” for the nominee of União Brasil, Elmar Nascimento (BA), after the party’s chosen one, deputy Soraya Santos (RJ), resigned from her candidacy.
Santos announced that he would give up “in the name of a bigger project” and “because I want to see Flávio elected in this country”. According to her, an agreement was reached in her political field so that the next vacancies at the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) and the TCU will be filled by women.
The withdrawal of Soraya’s candidacy put an end to the defense of a woman in the TCU in these elections, which lasted less than a week. , the senator and pre-candidate stated that “it bothers everyone that among the current members of the TCU there is not even a woman”.
Flávio was the one who gave the final word on the choice of Elmar Nascimento in place of Soraya Santos. Despite this, he did not attend the session.
The elected candidate, Odair Cunha, has been a federal deputy for Minas Gerais for six terms and has spent 23 years in Parliament.
The parliamentarian graduated in Law in 1999 from the Faculty of Law of Varginha and says he was a municipal prosecutor, legal advisor and legal consultant for municipal chambers in Minas Gerais. He was also Secretary of State for the Government during the administration of Fernando Pimentel (PT).
Odair Cunha was cited in Lava Jato allegations and was even investigated by the STF (Supreme Federal Court) for misappropriation of values from the National Transport Confederation.
In 2019, the court referred the case to the first instance, as the facts were not related to the exercise of the mandate. He criticizes the use of the collaboration agreement in the complaint.
In a speech before the vote, Odair Cunha said he would take Parliament into the TCU. The deputy stated that he dialogues with all parliamentarians, without differentiating political parties, and defended the amendments.
“A parliamentary amendment is not a problem, an amendment is a solution, a legitimate political instrument, a concrete way of making parliament part of people’s lives”, he stated.
The vote was secret and took place in booths installed in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies.
The new vacancy was opened by the retirement of former deputy Aroldo Cedraz. Cedraz was nominated by Congress in 2006 and, at the time, the choice represented a defeat for the Lula government. The successful candidate will be able to hold the position until retirement, which is compulsory at age 75.
The TCU’s function is to help Congress monitor and supervise Brazil’s budgetary and financial execution, exercising external control of the federal government.
According to the court’s website, the institution is responsible for the accounting, financial, budgetary, operational and patrimonial supervision of public bodies and entities in the country regarding legality, legitimacy and economicity.
The first to speak, Elmar Nascimento argued that the plenary had never approved a PT candidacy for the TCU, and therefore should not do so on this occasion. He defended that, if elected, he would “always have his doors open” for parliamentarians.
Danilo Forte said that the dispute would define which path he would follow in the coming years. According to him, his candidacy represented the search for “sovereignty of power [Legislativo]”, which would be affirmed through the construction of the budget. The deputy’s motto was Câmara Forte, TCU Forte, a pun on his name.
Gilson Daniel said he did not participate in the agreement to elect Odair Cunha and placed himself as an independent candidate. “His choice here today could be an ideological choice, right or left, but it could also be a choice of independence, of impartiality, of who will have dialogue like everyone else,” he argued.
Deputy Hugo Leal highlighted his trajectory and said that it would be a technical profile, which would invest in prevention and in expanding the court’s guidance role. “I prefer a tighter budget than what we are seeing today, with the fiscal crisis,” he argued.
Novo’s nominee, deputy Adriana Ventura (SP), withdrew her candidacy before the start of the session, and therefore did not speak.
On Monday (13), all seven applications had been approved after
Parliamentary amendments, the target of clashes with other Powers after the rise in values in recent years, were among the most discussed topics. The candidates defended the mandatory amendments as legitimate instruments of Parliament.
