In Mombasa, in the hinterland of Ceará, almost everything is missing. With an economy based on family farming, the semi-arid municipality faces infrastructure and water supply challenges. But it shouldn’t have been this way: Mombasa is just 79 km from Taua, one of the national advocates for the rapporteur’s amendments (code RP-9), the funds that underlie the secret budget scheme disclosed state… The union has already allocated 151.4 million reais from these funds to Taua, but only 2.9 million reais to Mombasa. It is as if the government allocated R $ 2,606.14 for each Tahua resident, but only R $ 67.12 for the neighbors.

Contrary to what the leaders of Congress have said Supreme Federal Court (STF), the allocation of the secret budget focuses not on basic services, but on the political convenience of some parliamentarians. Cities that are the electoral base of allies of the Planalto Palace or congressmen holding influential positions in Congress receive hundreds of millions of reais, while nearby or neighboring municipalities are on their own. Together, the four non-state capitals leading secret budget fund cities received pledges of just over R $ 731 million in 2020 and 2021. This is more than the 2,261 municipalities combined at the base of the pyramid.

The non-capital cities that have benefited the most from the amendments so far: Pousu-Alegre (MG) with an appropriation of R $ 237.2 million; Petrolina (PE) – R $ 195.6 million; Tahua (CE), R $ 151.5 million, and Santana (AP), R $ 146.6 million. In general, they all have places in the immediate vicinity that received little or no input from the speaker. They are also strongholds for the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG); the leader of the government in the Senate, Fernando Bezerra (MDB-PE); General Rapporteur on the 2020 budget, sunday grandson (PSD-CE); and the former chairman of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP). The principle of equality, the essence of the Constitution, is not taken into account in the distribution of transfers.

From Tuesday, a virtual plenary session of the Supreme Federal Court (VFS) is to review the minister’s decision. Rose Weber which decided to release the transfers from the secret budget. She accepted the version of the presidents of the chamber, Arthur Lyra (Progressistas-AL) and Pacheco that the resource suspension, which was approved by Plenary 8-2 in November, was a “potential” risk for health and education services. There is no guarantee that this money will go to important areas. The dissemination of amendments does not meet the technical criteria, quite the opposite.

In publishing the translations on the 6th, Rosa Weber cited data gathered at the request of the top leadership of the Congress, stating that the rapporteur’s amendments benefited 86.9% of Brazilian municipalities, which, according to the minister, would be enough to show “balance”. in the distribution of funds. Not really. In fact, of the 5,570 municipalities, more than half (2,564) received insignificant amounts – less than 1 million reais. Together, these 2,500 municipalities at the bottom of the table have pledged just over R $ 1 billion – the rest of the municipalities retained the remaining R $ 29 billion.

Mombasa and Taua differ in terms of receiving funds, but have similar economic and social conditions. Mombasa with 43 thousand inhabitants and Taua with 58 thousand have an average human development index (HDI): one – 0.604, and the other – 0.633. Just over half of the population of the two municipalities earn up to half of the minimum wage.

Mayor of Mombasa, Orlando Dream (MDB), is working on the development of production chains for dairy cattle and honey. According to him, the work could be more effective with the support of the Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Agriculture. “I don’t really like to talk about problems and difficulties, because everything is here, do you understand? There is not enough money, people are in need, we are working hard to be able to provide (rural) producers with a better structure, ”he said. “But obviously, if I had, for example, a drilling machine, it would help solve the problem of water scarcity.”

In local politics, Sertan dos Inhamuns, where Taua and Mombasa are located, Orlando Filho is part of a political group opposing 2020 Budget Rapporteur Federal MP Domingos Neto (PSD-CE). Besides being the home of the speaker, Taua is ruled by his mother, Patricia Aguiar (PSD). “All problems can be imagined. We have to use our intelligence to overcome one by one, ”says Orlando Filho. Of the R $ 2.9 million Mombasa has received so far, most (R $ 2.5 million) has gone to health care.

Other politicians with voices in the region also complain that they cannot solve problems at their base without using the rapporteur’s amendments. “Last year, residents of Kaninda (CE) complained about the lack of water. I went to speak with the (then) President of Funasa (National Health Foundation) (Colonel) Jiovanne (Gomes da Silva). And he told me there was no way out. There was no budget. And he advised me to look for the Rapporteur General Domingos Netto, who has R $ 100 million for work, ”says Deputy Danilo Forte (PSDB-CE).

In Catarina (CE), just 48 km from the towns of Patricia Aguiar and Domingos Neto, the RP-9 amendments have required R $ 562,000 since 2020, about 262 times less than in Taua. It is as if every resident of Catarina received R $ 29.99 from the Union, compared to R $ 2.6 thousand from Tahua. The municipality, with a population of 18 thousand, also has worse economic and social indicators than Mombasa, with a low HDI of 0.580. Such cases do not comply with the Budgetary Principles Act (LDO): in Art. 86, it specifies that transfers take into account the “socio-economic indicators of the recipient population”.

On the other side of Brazil’s map, Pouso Alegre (MG), with a population of 154,000 and a high HDI of 0774, is today the Brazilian city with the most active (i.e., reserved) resources from the rapporteur’s amendments, with the exception of state capitals.

R $ 237 million reserved for the city of Sul de Minas, including funds from the San Francisco Valley Development Company (Codevasf). The city of Pozo Alegre, the city of Possus de Caldas (MG), also has a high HDI of 0.775 and an equivalent population of 166,000, but so far the commitment from RP-9 is only R $ 1.5 million. In Pozo Alegre, 1,537 reais are reserved per capita, while in Pozo, 80 km away, a total of 9.26 reais per capita is reserved.

One of the main advocates of the continuity of the secret budget is Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG). He is an ally of Pozo Alegre Mayor Rafael Simoens (DEM) and arrived in the city on November 19 to lay the foundation for a new cancer hospital, which will have over 11,000 square meters of built-up space and 100 new beds. In 2018, Pacheco was the most-voted Senate candidate for Pozo Alegre, with nearly 30% of the vote. Mayor Rafael Simões was sentenced by the first instance of the Federal Court to 10 years in prison for embezzlement, that is, theft of state property. This can be appealed.

Petrolina (PE) ranks second in the ranking of cities with the highest income in RP-9 after Pouso Alegre. The city is the birthplace and political base of Senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho, whose mayor is his son, Miguel Coelho… Among other improvements, money from the RP-9 was used in the city to renovate the Nilo Coelho Convention Center, a name given to the uncle of the government leader who ruled Pernambuco from 1967 to 1971. Lucky in terms of RP-9. resources such as Afrânio (PE) allocated only 3.1 million; and Casa Nova (R $ 2.7 million).

It rounds off the list of municipalities with the highest funds from the rapporteur’s amendments to the cities of Santana (AP), with R $ 146.6 million allocated in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The municipality is part of the Macapa metropolitan area (AP), the political stronghold of the former Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP), one of the congressmen who pointed to the largest amount of funds from the secret budget – in Macapa commitments total R $ 330.5 million, which puts it is ahead of other capitals with much larger populations such as Porto Alegre (RS) and Curitiba (PR).

If the survey only took into account 2021, the city of Arapiraka, Alabama, would also be among the champions with a donation of R $ 69.9 million. The city is the electoral base of Mayor Arthur Lear (Progressistas-AL).

Report state he sought out Domingos Neto, Rodrigo Pacheco, Davi Alcolumbre and Fernando Bezerra Coelho for comments, but received no response from any of the aforementioned parliamentarians until Sunday evening.

Economist and founder of the public organization Contas Abertas, Gil Branco Castle explains that the concentration of resources in several cities occurs due to an excess of general programs in the budget – that is, when the Budget Law does not allocate funds to a specific location, leaving it to be done only when money is allocated. … “The budget is approved using shared timetables, and after that, questions about who will be nominated begin to be discussed,” says Castello Branco.

The problem arose even when discretionary funds (which could be used freely) were under the authority of the executive branch, but it was compounded by the rapporteur’s amendments. “What happens? You distort public policy, thus freeing up billions of dollars. Money starts to be distributed according to purely political, personal or party criteria.” The solution to the problem, he said, is to minimize the amount of “common programming.” The LDO already posits this, but it was a dead letter because the legislature or executive has no interest in it being otherwise. ”

Until November 5, when the Federal Supreme Court ruled to suspend payments on the rapporteur’s amendments, a later revised injunction issued by Minister Rosa Weber, the federal executive had invested R $ 30.7 billion in the item in 2020 Budgets for 2021, of which have already been paid R $ 12.1 billion. Another R $ 3.6 billion payable for 2020 has also been paid.