The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) that investigates the performance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that operate in the Amazon region approved a request to call technicians from the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) who analyzed transfers from the Amazon Fund to entities.
The fund receives resources from countries such as Germany and Norway and is administered by the Brazilian government through the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
Video: Amazon Fund has already benefited more than 300 projects
Its purpose is to raise donations for non-reimbursable investments in actions to prevent, monitor and combat deforestation and to promote the conservation and sustainable use of the Legal Amazon.
According to the president of the CPI, senator Plinio Valério (PSDB-AM), the TCU had published a report in 2019 that pointed out failures verified in recent years in the management of the fund’s resources.
“Many NGOs use this money from the fund to speak ill of the Amazon. We want to unmask this. Let’s make Brazil aware of how these NGOs work. Many NGOs, mainly environmental ones, use the name Amazônia to enrich their members. They get rich and those who finance them achieve their objective: to immobilize the Amazon”, says Valério.
According to the TCU report to which the CNN had access, almost all of the resources allocated to one of an organization’s projects (85%) were spent on costing items such as rent, energy, telephone and payment of salaries for the “beneficiary’s team”, that is, for an NGO. The CPI says it disagrees with this type of transfer.
The document also says that installments were released by the BNDES without the previous installment being approved through a follow-up report, a kind of accountability, and that payments in amounts above R$ 2 million were released without proof of notes invoices and/or receipts.
The TCU report also mentions that the BNDES released funds despite the information that the Ministry of Cities had registered the beneficiary in the Integrated System of Financial Administration (SIAFI) and in the Register of Private Non-Profit Impeded Companies (CEPIM) as defaulter.
The president of the CPI highlighted that the commission is not against the current government and that the collegiate is raising data from previous governments.
“The CPI is not against the government, it is a CPI against NGOs that harm us. Our objective is to open this black box. There are NGOs that raised money to take care of the health of the Yanomami. And they didn’t care. In other words, there are many NGOs that receive money to do a disservice to Brazil.”
The CPI of the NGOs must listen to TCU technicians after the recess. The collegiate resumes work from the first of August.
Source: CNN Brasil
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