Brazil is in 94th place in the corruption perception index prepared by the non-governmental organization (NGO) Transparency International with 180 countries. Since 2012, Brazil has lost 5 points in the index, leaving it with 38 points, the same position as Argentina, Morocco, Ethiopia and Tanzania. The position is below the global average (43 points) of the Latin America and Caribbean region (43 points) and the Brics, a group formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (39 points).
Transparency International assesses that, during the government of President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), there was an “accelerated dismantling” of institutions and processes to combat corruption in the country. According to the NGO, over the last four years, Brazil has faced “unprecedented degeneration of its democratic regime”.
According to the report prepared by the organization, Bolsonaro dismantled the system that makes legal accountability for crimes of corruption, undermining the independence of several public institutions, such as the Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Police (PF), the Comptroller General’s Union and the Federal Revenue Service.
The director general of the Federal Police was, according to the analysis, changed four times during the Bolsonaro government. Paulo Maiurino, who commanded the corporation from April 2021 to February 2022, made, according to the report, several changes in key positions in the institution. Another change pointed out by the NGO was the replacement of the superintendent in São Paulo by a name aligned with the then President Bolsonaro and the superintendent in Amazonas, who had sent a criminal notice to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) against the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles. , accused of interfering in the operation that led to the largest seizure of illegal timber in the history of Brazil.
According to the report, the purposeful dismantling of environmental governance has led to increased rates of deforestation and human rights violations against indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
RMP
Transparency International considers the appointment of Augusto Aras to command the PGR as one of the central points in the dismantling of the fight against corruption and the reduction of institutional control of government actions. “The consequences of the PGR’s omission go far beyond corruption, as it watches inertly the criminal management of the covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in the greatest humanitarian tragedy in Brazilian history”, emphasizes the document.
According to the report, the PGR’s omission caused the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court to exacerbate their roles in containing the threats to democracy promoted by Bolsonaro and his allies. “Without being able to rely on the holder of the criminal action or rely on the PGR Augusto Aras, ministers began to act ex officio and collectively ratify heterodoxies that they would never endorse, if they did not conceive a situation of extreme risk”, says the document.
Also according to the Transparency International report, the Bolsonaro government promoted the dismantling of social control processes, reducing access to information, with the lack of government data and the illegal use of secrecy.
secret budget
The abuse of the general rapporteur’s amendments to the Annual Budget Law, the so-called secret budget, is also pointed out by the NGO as a system that reduced transparency in the use of public money. “Under a veneer of legality and a theater of institutionality, the Secret Budget represented the largest budget appropriation scheme for dubious purposes [de] registered in the country”, states the report.
According to Transparency International, based on the use of these amendments, billions of reais were sent “to municipalities without institutional control capacity, spreading corruption even more in the country, enhancing fraud and deviations at the local level”.
