Defeated in the plenary of the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) during the trial of the first part of the privatization of Eletrobras, Minister Vital do Rêgo says he is “frustrated” with the result and says he does not know if the body will be able to “remediate this error” . “I don’t think so,” he said.
The main discussion during the Eletrobras privatization trial was the pricing of power. Why did you decide to address this issue?
We have extensive legislation starting in 2004 and going to 2021, in addition to a decree that regulates the existence of the possibility of selling power. The EPE (Energy Research Company) itself sent studies to the TCU informing what the CME (Marginal Expansion Cost) would be after 30 years. You cannot sell energy without saying that a power value is built in. My question was simple, and the ministers did not explain why the ministry ordered the EPE not to arbitrate power.
The government has not advanced with the privatization agenda so far, and Eletrobras is strategic for government management. Did that rush influence the judgment in the TCU? Minister Benjamin Zymler himself said in the vote that the accounts were not mature.
Minister Zymler had the intellectual dignity to say that the process was not mature and said that if Eletrobras was his, it would not be privatized. I don’t imagine that the TCU could be captured because of the political calendar, because we can’t do that under any circumstances. We are an absolutely technical body.
You said in the vote that, in the future, there will be a feeling that ‘Eletrobras was sold at half price and the private sector is having the party’. After the result, what feeling is left?
Frustration, as I have a sense of nationalism. Nationalism without being ideological, responsible nationalism. I made a point of not discussing whether I am against or in favor of the privatization process. As a judge, I cannot do that. But how can I allow myself, in good conscience, to sign a ruling maintaining a privatization with an undervaluation of R$ 63 billion? I don’t feel comfortable doing it. I don’t know if we can fix this error, I don’t think so. The process started wrong.
The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
Source: CNN Brasil
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