Government allocates R$ 3.3 billion from the budget of ministries for discretionary expenses

The Special Secretariat for the Treasury and Budget, of the Ministry of Economy, allocated around BRL 3.3 billion between mandatory and discretionary expenses of ministries.

The ordinance published on Tuesday (6), allows seven ministries and the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) to use resources not used from mandatory expenses, in expenses considered discretionary.

Unused amounts were informed by the bodies themselves, and the secretariat can regulate the reallocation, and release the resources to be used in the way defined by the folders.

The ministry that had the largest amount reallocated was Health, with R$ 2.29 billion being initialed as discretionary expenses. Then, the ministries of Economy, Education and Citizenship had R$ 300 million released for each one.

The Ministry of Economy points out that “it is up to each one of them to allocate these resources internally, according to their priorities”.

And he states that “the global amount of each ministry has been preserved”. In practice, reallocation frees up resources for departments to spend on expenses considered discretionary. In the case of the Ministry of Education, for example, the payment of scholarships for scientific initiation is classified as a discretionary expense.

Issuing passports by the Federal Police, which falls under the budget of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, is also a discretionary expense. The portfolio also benefited from the reallocation of R$ 32.7 million.