Deputies debate the possibility of state-owned companies having political leaders

In a panel sponsored by CNN this Sunday (19), federal deputies Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) and José Medeiros (PL-MT) debated the possibility of state-owned companies having political leaders.

The subject came up again after the news that the State-Owned Companies Law, sanctioned in 2016, may return to the agenda of the National Congress in the coming days.

The project has caused disagreements: the New Party, last Saturday, filed an appeal at the Federal Supreme Court (STF) against a decision by Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, who overturned parts of the law and suspended restrictions on the appointment of politicians to director positions in public companies.

The request for this injunction came from the PCdoB and, shortly after Lewandowski’s decision, Minister André Mendonça returned the request for views on the constitutionality of an article of the law, thus releasing the agenda for debate and voting in the plenary of the Supreme Court.

Deputy Glauber Brag says he agrees with Minister Ricardo Lewandowski’s decision. According to him, “the law was put into practice during the government of former President Michel Temer, with the aim of placing market agents in state-owned companies and thus facilitating the privatization process”.

“Among other rules, which are not being questioned outside, there is one that says that there must be experience in the field of action of the state-owned company for a few years to exercise a position of authority”, he said.

“This is not bad in the public sector, but in the private sector, we usually have agents trying to capture the public space, causing the state-owned company to have a reduced capacity to offer public services to facilitate privatization. There are several cases where this has happened.”

For José Medeiros, “it is a pity that we are dismantling a law that brought so many benefits to public and mixed capital companies in the country”.

“This is a debate that has been widely held in the House and Senate for a long time, and we are saddened by the dwarfing of the National Congress which, after going through so many discussions, sees the decision go down the drain at the stroke of a pen. We cannot go to extremes. I am not against the measure without any legislation, each government has its understanding, but not so much at sea as on land.”

In the view of the PL deputy, the law was created to prevent the scrapping of state-owned companies, which “would have been extinguished if they were private companies”.

“Everyone followed what happened with their governance part. Something had to be done. Within the diagnosis, what happened to the pension funds and the rigging of the parties led to the perception that a minimum of compliance was needed. If you don’t agree with the quarantine time, let the time be discussed. The financial health of companies can be undermined because of 500 positions for distribution, because the government is having difficulty setting up a base.”

Watch the debate in full in the video above.

(Posted by Tamara Nassif)