Rapporteur of the proposal on secret amendments defends “lock” in the budget

The rapporteur of changes in the release of parliamentary amendments, senator Marcelo Castro, told the CNN, this Friday, which will stipulate a limit for the granting of amendments to the rapporteur. Congress will vote on the new rules on Monday, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to freeze transfers for lack of transparency. The text is still under discussion.

The idea of ​​defining the maximum resources by amendment of the rapporteur is not a consensus among deputies and senators. Marcelo Castro emphasizes that he only wants to continue at the head of the discussions if he guarantees a lock, which would reduce the powers of the budget rapporteur. “I would put a limit because otherwise the most important position in the Republic will no longer be that of president. But the general rapporteur of the budget. There is no reason to hide it”, he told the column.

In order to make the allocation of funds transparent, information about the author of the amendment, amounts and the purpose of the transfers would be displayed on the internet, such as on the website of the Mixed Budget Commission (CMO).

It is already defined, among the lawmakers, that the changes will not apply to the amendments that have already been paid for this year, according to the Congress cúpulas summit. The rules would be applied in the case of new amendments and it is still under discussion whether they would also apply to amendments not paid, but that are already with the committed amount, that is, in the payment queue.

The general rapporteur for the 2020 Budget was federal deputy Domingos Neto (PSD-CE). In the 2021 Budget, the position fell to senator Márcio Bittar (PSL-AC), who had forecast R$30 billion, but “returned” R$10 billion after criticism.