The article was included by the rapporteur in the House, deputy Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP-PB), in the government’s project sent to Congress which reduces tax exemptions by 10%. As it was an object unrelated to the original proposal, it was considered a “turtle”. Senate technicians calculated that through this maneuver it would be possible to recover 1.9 billion reais of parliamentary amendments not paid by the government between 2019 and 2023, including those canceled.
Ribeiro said the article was inserted at the request of the Executive, to preserve unpaid balances, especially those from ongoing or stopped works.
— I responded to a request from the government which was asked of Congress when this device was inserted, in order not to lose this budgetary space — declared the rapporteur to the House.
In the Senate, the text was reported by the leader of the government in Congress, Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), who also maintained the article. Planalto, however, is trying to dissociate itself from this agreement. As it is a fiscal issue, Lula will have to sanction or veto the project in 2025.
Just put some context here, this isn’t the first time and last week there was friction between Gleisi and Jaques over dosimetry.
According to Dino, the “jabuti” attempts to reopen the space for the execution of resources from the old secret budget, considered unconstitutional by the Court due to the lack of transparency and objective criteria. Among parliamentarians, Dino’s decision was received with surprise and interpreted as a movement that contradicted an articulation led by the Executive itself.
In the preliminary decision, the minister argued that regularly canceled unpaid balances no longer legally exist and that their revalidation amounts, in practice, to the creation of a new authorization for unsupported spending in the current budget law.
Dino also highlighted a possible formal defect in the initiative, knowing that the device deals with budgetary execution and financial management, issues for which the initiative is reserved for the head of the executive branch, and stressed that a work plan is underway at the STF to remedy the distortions inherited from the secret budget, without any provision for the “resurrection” of unpaid balances. According to Dino, this highlights the inadequacy of the project with the parameters already agreed between the three powers.
The Dino decision is another chapter in the STF-Congress conflict that has lasted at least two years between the judiciary and parliamentarians over control of the Union budget. In addition to deeming the secret budget unconstitutional, the Court demanded transparency and increased scrutiny of parliamentary amendments, including authorization of Federal Police (PF) operations.
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