The problem of parliamentary amendments has worsened

But why do they represent a problem and what is the nature of this worsening? The main problem is political in nature. I was once a candidate for federal deputy and learned that voting on one candidate is hindered by the existence of many of them. When this happens it is difficult to choose, and in economics there have been those who have considered and called this situation “when more is less”. The person makes the choice and is not sure of its convenience. The ideal would be district voting, in which in each district there would be, if anything, half a dozen viable candidates for election to the legislature, and not hundreds, as is the case today. Debate between them would help clarify their qualities.

I also learned that mayors and city councilors have great influence on state and federal election outcomes, given their relationship with local voters, around whom they begin to act as canvassers. Once, when talking about my candidacy with the former governor of São Paulo Mário Covas, he said that “he would find me some mayors”, but he died shortly after.

This is where the amendments come into play, as MPs try to direct them to their voter bases, attracting mayors and councilors seeking support for re-election. Once the amendments are secured, the incumbent candidates – those already in office – begin to flaunt their role, seeking future votes. Just recently I saw in a newspaper a photo of a federal deputy displaying a large poster in the shape of a cheque, which indicated the value of the amendment, the municipality to which he was destined and the parliamentarian as the issuer.

I understand that the parliamentary amendments are unconstitutional, as Article 5 of the Constitution reads as follows: “Everyone is equal before the law, without distinctions of any kind, guaranteeing Brazilians and foreigners residing in the country the inviolability of the right to life, freedom, equality, security and property”.

Note that the text above talks about equality, but the incumbent candidate has amendment privilege over others, which means he advertises even outside of election periods and in the process indirectly receives campaign funding from the government. Where is the constitutional equality regarding non-incumbent candidates?

Moving on to the worsening of the problem, it arises from its growing size in quantities, values ​​and the influence of Congress in this expansion. The Valor newspaper of 12/29/2023 published an article by economists Alexandre Manoel and Lucas Barbosa showing a graph of total and mandatory parliamentary amendments as a percentage of discretionary spending, from 2015 to 2023, prepared by economist Marcos Mendes. The proportion of these total expenses with modifications, compared to discretionary expenses, increased from 1.9% in 2015 to 20.6% in 2023 (!), an increase that is much stronger from 2020. Also according to the text, the graph shows the transfer of part of power from the Executive to the Legislative and the growing influence of the latter on the Budget.

In other words, the amendment problem is clearly getting worse. And there is also inequality among sitting presidents themselves, as some have greater power over the assignment of amendments. As a result, there are what are called “amendment champions.”

As regards the allocation towards the objectives, it is fragmented. They can go to education, health and sanitation, for example, but many projects are said to be poorly formulated and executed, and I have also seen references to hiring artists for performances, but I don’t know of a full investigation and detailed on the impact of the changes in terms of public policies. Reports of irregular applications also come in from time to time. The last complaint I saw was published in a full-page article in this newspaper on 12/23/2023, with the title Senator sends R$38.2 million for work at his family’s construction company .

Moving on to the values ​​of the amendments in reais, or, worse, in billions, their progress has meant that their forecast for the 2024 Budget is a total of R$53 billion, a huge sum. The latest step to increase the value was Congress’ cutting of R$7 billion from the Growth Acceleration Program (CAP). As a result, the value of this program has been reduced to R$54 billion, and is therefore very close to the figure of the amendment package mentioned above. It is also worth noting that when we talk about these changes we are talking about federal resources that should be allocated to larger works and large services related to federal public policies. Municipalities should use their own resources to advance their municipal policies, and amendments resulting from federal amendments can wean them from relying on them.

The person who can remedy this poor state of the amendments would be the Federal Supreme Court (STF). I am not a lawyer, but based on the above arguments I continue and will continue to understand that they are unconstitutional.

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ECONOMIST (UFMG, USP AND HARVARD), HE IS AN ECONOMIC AND HIGHER EDUCATION CONSULTANT

2024-01-04 06:00:00
#problem #parliamentary #amendments #worsened