Under an administration characterized by state ideology and disregard for basic rules of good governance, it is not surprising that federal state enterprises are depleted.
This is what the seventh financial risk report issued by the National Treasury reveals: Nine companies controlled by the federal government are accumulating recurring losses, raising the risk of billion-dollar contributions from the union – that is, from Brazilian taxpayers.
For a universe of 27 state-owned companies that have their own revenues and are taken into account when calculating the public deficit (excluding Petrobras and official banks), the report forecasts a deficit of R$6.2 billion this year and R$6.7 billion in 2026.
The most serious case is that of Correios, which incurred losses of R$2.6 billion in the second quarter of 2025 alone, almost five times as much as the corresponding period of 2024 (R$553 million), for a total of R$4.4 billion in the semester.
In the face of the disaster, a loan to the company of R$20 billion was proposed, with the approval of the Treasury, which would only postpone the inevitable and bring more financial costs to society.
Another example is ENBPar, the controlling shareholder of Eletronuclear, which requires an urgent contribution of R$1.4 billion to cover expenses until the end of the year. The bill could be much higher, given that fully completing the unfinished Angra 3 nuclear plant will require about R$20 billion, according to estimates.
There are also losses and declines in revenues at Infraero, Casa da Moeda and Companhias Docas in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Pará. Recently, the Federal Court of Audit (TCU) established a working group to review these entities.
The current debacle is no coincidence, and was helped by the injunction issued in March 2023 by Ricardo Lewandowski, then Minister of the Federal Supreme Court and now Minister of Justice, which suspended parts of state law and facilitated appointments without technical qualifications.
The decision opened the doors to filling company boards and councils with party allies and trade unionists. Even after the STF, in May 2024, ratified the legal restrictions, those appointed during the period the injunction was in effect were allowed to remain until the end of their term.
The Labor administration repeats this pattern. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised to revive state-owned enterprises as engines of development, but has once again returned to draining public resources.
In the absence of a broad recovery programme, with professional management and interest cuts, there is no solution – and where possible, privatization is the antidote.
The post office, with its antiquated network and chronic losses, should have been transferred to private control long ago. The risk at this stage is that there will be no interested parties, and the least expensive option in this case would be to close the state-owned company. Maintaining the current model means dooming taxpayers to another cycle of losses.
Editorials@grupofolha.com.br
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