‘Parallel’ amendments total R $ 8.5 billion in the 2025 budget, it points transparency Brazil

The 2025 budget foresees R $ 8.5 billion in parliamentary amendments of “parallel” committee, officially linked to the executive, but controlled, in practice, by the legislature, points out a report by Transparency Brazil. The mechanism was created by an agreement between the Planalto Palace and the Congress and goes against the requirements of the Supreme Court (STF) to increase transparency in the payment of amendments.

According to Transparency Brazil, it is the first time this mechanism has been adopted in four years in the commission amendments, whose indication is carried out by the congress collegiate, the House of Representatives or the Senate. With this, the volume of commission amendments reaches the highest level since 2020, the report highlights. The same practice has been used since 2021 in the bench amendments.

“The creation of the ‘parallel’ commission amendments is yet another of the National Congress maneuvers to maintain the power over a considerable slice of the federal budget after the Supreme Court judges the unconstitutional secret budget,” said Transparency Brazil in a report, highlighting the aggravation of being made possible by agreement with the executive. “It is a derision with the demand of society for more transparency and morality in public spending,” he added.

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This maneuver was made possible by a normative instruction, signed by the 2025 budget rapporteur, Senator Ângelo Colonel (PSD-BA), who established exceptional rules for amendment. By the standard, Colonel was responsible for defining the Commission Amendment Code.

The “parallel” commission amendments did not receive the RP 8 primary result identifier, which identifies commission amendments, but RP 2 (R $ 4.5 billion) and RP 3 (R $ 4.0 billion), which refer to federal government spending. RP3 are intended for government spending with the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC).

Thus, in the budget execution, the resources of the “parallel” committee amendments may mix with other federal government expenses identified as RP 2 and RP 3, if the executive does not establish a way to track them, the entity points out.

For Transparency Brazil, it is necessary for the federal government to adopt a unique identifier to differentiate the “parallel” amendments from its other discretionary expenses in the execution of expenses. Keeping the current division, the practice resembles the “secret budget”, prohibited by the Supreme Court.

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“If the government does not adopt such practice, it will act contrary to the determinations of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) regarding the obligation of total transparency and screenability of the budget and another secret budget will be established,” the entity said in the report.

“It is unfortunate that two powers of the Republic simulate efforts to comply with constitutional order and STF decisions regarding amendments by preparing rules and, at the same time, ignoring them and surrounding them for their own benefit,” criticized Brazil transparency in the document.

Generic actions

Of the total of R $ 8.5 billion, Transparency Brazil points out that R $ 7.1 billion is directed to generic actions. The final destination of money is only known when the presidents of Congress committees send trades to ministries to distribute resource, in a process defined by the entity as “uncommon and poorly articulated with federal planning”, which favors political use, according to transparency.

According to the survey, organs that are traditionally used to accommodate political interests in the distribution of amendments appear among the 10 largest recipients of the “parallel” commission amendments.

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This is the case of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT), with R $ 242 million, São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys Development Company (Codevasf), with R $ 218 million, and National Department of Drought Works (DNOCS), with R $ 154 million.

In the division of the money, more than half, an amount of R $ 4.9 billion, was destined to the Senate, led by David Alcolumbre (Union-AP). The value is even higher than the total commission amendments of the Legislative House, which total R $ 3.8 billion. In the House, chaired by Deputy Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB) are R $ 2.8 billion in RP 2 and RP 3 commission amendments.