A special committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday (3) the opinion of deputy Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP) in favor of the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) 27/24, which creates the National Racial Equality Fund, intended to finance cultural, social and economic projects aimed at the black population.
The objective is correct the historical disadvantages that kept it away from the means of production and economic participation under equitable conditions. The proposal is now ready to be voted on in plenary.
According to the text, the fund’s resources will come from various sources, including fines imposed for acts of racial discrimination, final convictions for crimes resulting from racial or color prejudice, in addition to compensation charged to companies that profited from slavery in Brazil, international donations, budget allocations from the Union and other sources provided for by law.
The PEC determines that the The Union must make an initial contribution of R$20 billion for the creation and initial capitalization of the fund. Another point of the proposal determines that the amount will be transferred in annual installments corresponding to “one twentieth of the total amount, starting from the financial year following the entry into force” of the device.
Special Committee of the Chamber approved proposed amendment to the Constitution that creates the National Racial Equality Fund – Photo: Lula Marques/Agência Brasil
The monitoring of the application and management of the fund’s resources will be carried out by a Deliberative and Monitoring Council, formed by representatives of public authorities and civil society.
Furthermore, the rapporteur included a chapter in the Constitution on the promotion of racial equality, with principles, objectives and general guidelines for national policy. The text also reinforces the original proposal to include the National System for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Sinapir) in the Constitution.
Provided for in the Racial Equality Statute, Sinapir promotes coordination between the Union, states, municipalities and civil society. The transfer of fund resources is subject to formal adherence to the system.
“[É uma] solution that ensures rationality, decentralization and federative coherence in the implementation of policies to promote racial equality”, Silva pointed out.
According to the approved opinion, the definition of the nature of the fund, whether public or private, will be the subject of subsequent legislation. This definition will depend on the operationalization model of the public policy to be implemented, which involves, in addition to financial aspects, also transparency, control and governance criteria.
In the rapporteur’s assessment, establishing this definition in the Constitution, as provided for in the original version of the proposal, could restrict the flexibility necessary for public authorities to adopt the most appropriate format for implementing the racial equality policy and managing the fund’s resources.
“For this reason, it was decided to suppress the explicit mention of private nature, leaving this definition to the law that will regulate the matter in the future”, he argued.
