The Executive Branch regained power over the definition of the rapporteur’s amendments to the General Budget of the Union for next year. President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed an article in the 2023 Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) that gave control to the Legislature.
With the measure, it will be up to the Planalto Palace to define the execution of the rapporteur’s amendments, criticized for the lack of transparency. To regain power over the rapporteur’s amendments next year, the National Congress will have to overturn the veto, which requires a quorum of two-thirds of parliamentarians in a joint session.
The text approved by Congress in July established that it would be up to the chairman of the Joint Budget Commission (CMO) and the author of the parliamentary amendment to determine “the beneficiaries and the order of priorities” of the amendments of the budget’s general rapporteur. In the official justification, Palácio do Planalto considered that, “despite the good intentions of the legislator”, the definition of the execution of the rapporteur’s amendments by parliamentarians “contraries the public interest”.
According to the justification, the control of the rapporteur’s amendments by the CMO is contrary to the public interest because “it invests against the principle of impersonality, which guides the public administration, by promoting a personalistic nature in the indications and prioritization of the programs resulting from the amendments and increases the operational difficulties for the execution of public expenditure”.
“[O texto original] it would increase budgetary rigidity and remove from the Executive Branch the prerogative of detailing this limitation according to the execution needs of public bodies and with a view to meeting essential and unavoidable expenses”, highlighted the official justification.
Maintenance
Sanctioned today (10) by Bolsonaro, the LDO of 2023 maintained the rapporteur’s amendments. The text authorizes that next year’s General Budget of the Union, whose project will be sent to Congress on the 31st, contain “specific reserves to meet amendments classified with primary result identifier 9 (RP9) [nome técnico das emendas de relator]”.
The 2023 LDO also allows next year’s Budget to have “specific reserves” for individual and state bench (mandatory) tax amendments.
cancer policy
The president vetoed another portion of the 2023 LDO that would allow for resources earmarked for national policy for cancer prevention and control to be set into specific budget categories. In the justification, the Palácio do Planalto informed that the approved text would encourage the overlapping of actions and make it difficult to implement public policies against the disease.
“[O trecho original] it would promote overlapping actions and reduce the transparency of government action in the prevention and control of cancer, currently organized by a set of actions with specific products and goals within the scope of the Ministry of Health budget”, highlighted the justification message. “Furthermore, this is an initiative that is difficult to put into operation, given that many of the tasks carried out by the health units are not fully divisible by disease and/or ailment categories”, added the Planalto.
