The Senate Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) on Wednesday approved the draft that sets out rules for transparency, oversight and traceability for the so-called Bix Amendments. Private transfers sent directly to states and municipalities without agreements have, in recent years, become the most ambiguous budgetary mechanism, and the target of questions from the Supreme Federal Court (STF). Most of the rules set by the text are already applicable requirements set by the Supreme Court, the difference being that the proposal consolidates the rules into a single law.
The text approved by the group turns the current rules into a supplementary law and includes provisions drawn up by the STF after the provisions that dealt with the end of the so-called secret budget. The proposal is still before the other committees and needs the approval of the plenary session of the House of Representatives before it is presented to the Council.
According to the approved text, no special transfer may be launched without the beneficiary submitting in advance a complete work plan, with the detailed goal, objectives, timetable, overall budget, and budget classification for the expenditure. This data will be obligatorily entered into the official transfer system (such as the Transeggov system in the State of the Union), which becomes the central instrument for recording, analyzing and monitoring adjustments. The plan ceases to be an option and becomes a condition of transfer, determined by law.
The project specifies that each amendment has its own exclusive bank account, opened in an official financial institution and operated only through the transfer system, with payment orders recorded in an automated manner, as specified by Minister Flavio Dino. It is prohibited to transfer amounts to parallel accounts, which eliminates the loss of antiquities and prevents the mixing of funds with other sources. Furthermore, snippets and movement information will be made available in the system, ensuring full traceability of resource flow. Municipalities and states must also make public, with active transparency, the operational data needed to monitor implementation.
Accountability is no longer occasional, but has become mandatory and annual. By June 30 of the year following receipt, the entity must submit a management report that includes invoices, accounting records, bank statements, contracts, terms of receipt, and physical and financial details of implementation. Failure to send or rejection of these accounts constitutes a technical obstacle, which prevents new transfers until settlement and may lead to a special accounting being conducted by the competent accounting court.
All legislative decisions regarding the distribution of amendments – whether by individual parliamentarians, bodies, committees or rapporteurs – must be recorded in consolidated minutes, naming who proposed and who voted, and published promptly with active transparency. In formal systems, each stage of budget implementation must indicate the exact source of resources, with an adjustment symbol and, where appropriate, a supplementary reference. Furthermore, internal and external oversight bodies (TCEs and TCEs) should share databases and may enter into cooperation agreements to monitor in an integrated manner.
The text also addresses specific rules to facilitate the activities of small municipalities: municipalities with a population of less than 65 thousand inhabitants cannot have the transfer process blocked due to pending issues in the Unified Register of Agreements, except in cases where there is an express requirement of the Constitution. It also sets priorities for releasing resources: first to entities experiencing a disaster or emergency; Then to complete unfinished business. Finally, it sets global growth limits for adjustments, which must take into account the lowest index between the variation in discretionary expenditures, the ceiling set by the fiscal framework and the variation in net current revenues, thus preventing uncontrolled expansion of these resources.
In 2024, Dino ordered the suspension of payments for Bex modifications and only released them under certain conditions, such as submitting an action plan on the use of the resource and opening an account designated by the municipality to receive funds. This meant a change in the way these amendments worked: the money went to municipalities and governors without a stamp on the allocation of resources.
Project pixel edits should contain:
• Mandatory business plan. No resource is released without the entity detailing the object, goals, schedule, and budget.
• An exclusive account for each modification. The movement of funds is tracked and only occurs within the official system.
• Annual reports. Municipalities and states must submit complete reports each year; Without this, they are prevented from obtaining new resources.
• Complete transparency. The minutes, votes, authors, and destination of the amendments shall be immediately published and identified by name.
• Traceability in implementation. Each stage of the budget must record the true origin of the amendment and its connection to the responsible parliamentarian.
• Cooperation between audit courts. TCUs, TCEs and TCMs begin to share databases and work together.
• Prioritize emergencies and unfinished business. These cases will have preference to use private transfers.
• Reducing paste growth. The annual increase must respect the most restrictive financial standards.
• A special rule for small municipalities. Cities with a population of less than 65,000 are not blocked due to pending CAUC cases, except for constitutional exceptions.