Change in the State Law may be voted in the Senate this Thursday (15)

The bill that aims to modify the text of the State-owned Law may be voted in the Senate this Thursday (15). The purpose of the amendment is to facilitate political appointments to state-owned or mixed-capital companies.

The text was approved by the Chamber on Tuesday (13) and reduces from 36 months to 30 days the period of quarantine that a person who has acted in the decision-making structure of a political party or in work linked to the electoral campaign must go through to be able to take tenure in management position of public company and government-controlled company.

The initiative also facilitates the appointment of people to the board of directors or the collegiate board of regulatory agencies.

The change in the law may facilitate appointments by the elected president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), to state companies. Earlier this week, the PT candidate announced the name of former senator and former minister Aloizio Mercadante to head the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

There are those who consider that his nomination violates the current text of the State-Owned Companies Law. Mercadante was the coordinator of Lula’s government program through the Perseu Abramo Foundation and is a historical member of the Workers’ Party (PT).

The State-owned Law was approved during the Michel Temer (MDB) government as a response to the accusations of corruption in Operation Lava Jato that pointed to corruption at Petrobras.

Reviews

This Wednesday (14th), associations that represent investors, allied with the IBGC, an entity that defends corporate governance, and the Ethos Institute, published a note of repudiation on the alteration of the State-Owned Companies Law.

The note highlights that the State-Owned Companies Law shields companies controlled by the government against the “risk of being captured by partisan political interests”.

Informally, participants of the entities that signed the note claim that the change in the Law could lead the state-owned companies to a setback, causing these companies to become “job hangers” again. Another criticism made concerns the deadline for approval of the change in the Law by parliamentarians, at the drop of a hat, in one night.

The reading made is that politicians are revoking in a few hours the construction of a law that was elaborated from years of discussion, based on international parameters.

(With information from Caio Junqueira, Luciana Amaral and Priscila Yasbek)