Two evaluators from the judging committee of the Promac project, the Municipal Support Program for Cultural Projects, known as Lei Rouanet de São Paulo, resigned from their positions in November and sent messages highlighting the inequality of criteria in the analysis of projects and the lack of respect for the rules of the selection notice.
Internally, according to the Panel, discussions have taken place in recent months regarding the preference of certain projects to the detriment of others on the basis of interventions by program coordination, without justification supported by the guidelines of the opinion or the Promac regulations.
In a note, the Secretariat of Culture of the Ricardo Nunes administration (MDB) affirms that Promac “continues to respect the law and the guidelines of the opinion, fighting for the principle of equity, in a transparent manner”, without any form of favoritism.
The ministry also affirms that the dismissal of examiners occurs as in any other professional relationship, whether on their initiative or on the initiative of the public administration.
Like the Rouanet law, Promac operates through tax exemption and allows entrepreneurs and individuals to direct up to 20% of the IPTU (land and urban land tax) and the ISS (service tax) towards cultural initiatives in the capital.
The Promac judging committee is responsible for defining a limited number of applicants who will be able to seek investors to finance their artistic and cultural projects.
According to the chronicle, the current coordination of the program, which falls under the Totó Parente administration, of the Secretariat of Culture of Ricardo Nunes, has received criticism from those involved in Promac regarding possible favoritism of certain promoters.
In September, for example, the publication of a list of approved authors sparked internal controversy by including the “Ballet Paraisópolis” project and justifying it by the “discretionary competence” of the coordination, which could, according to the text, “evaluate exceptional situations, not expressly provided for in the legislation, but which require different treatment due to their social, cultural impact or their urgency”.
Last month, critics Fernanda Rodrigues and Eduardo Kishimoto announced they were leaving the program through critical messages.
In her text sent to the commission, Fernanda wrote that her departure was due to “a divergence of understanding regarding alignment with the guidelines of the opinion and the legislation that governs it.”
“I have noticed the adoption of expanded interpretations of the clauses of the opinion, as well as guidelines for us not to adhere to specific sections of the normative text, which, in my opinion, compromises the technical clarity and consistency of the evaluation process,” he wrote.
“I understand that the current conduct and direction of the management have unfortunately distorted the essence and principles of a program so relevant to the city of São Paulo, which has always been based on transparency, fairness and respect for legal and technical parameters,” he added.
Kishimoto, in turn, said he was leaving the judging committee “because of the adoption of unequal criteria in the analysis of projects, the lack of respect for the rules of advice – ethical issues which seem to me non-negotiable and which undermine the democratic function of this important incentive law.”
Promac is the restructuring of the Mendonça law, created in 1990 by the then mayor and now federal deputy Luiza Erundina. In 2013, the program was standardized by the administration of Fernando Haddad (current Minister of Finance) and, in December 2017, regulated by João Doria.
In 2019, Promac was boosted by the administration of Bruno Covas (PSDB) in the void left by the strangulation of the Rouanet law by the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
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