TCE/SC suspends transfers from the Catarinense Culture Foundation

The total lack of transparency and the lack of any channel that allows social control of public resources transferred by the Catarinense Culture Foundation (FCC), through the so-called Culture Incentive Program (PIC), for cultural projects in Santa Catarina, led the Plenary of the State Court of Auditors (TCE/SC) to confirm the decision that suspends the PIC and determines that the FCC refrain from approving new cultural projects to receive financial support (process @RLI-21/00674204).

– Continues after ad –

These conclusions are the result of a survey carried out in 2021, in which the Court of Auditors sought to identify the availability of the Foundation’s physical structure, personnel and information systems for the implementation and operationalization of the PIC.

Considering only the year 2023, according to information from the FCC, funding letters for 120 projects were approved, from 40 municipalities in Santa Catarina. Combined, the letters exceeded R$60 million.

The problem, as noted by the technical area of ​​the TCE/SC, is that there is no transparency regarding the criteria used to approve projects, the destination of resources (individuals or companies), the execution of approved projects and, also, the disclosure of accounts rendered to society for the amounts transferred.

Tax Waiver

The incentive proposed by the PIC is through tax waiver of the Tax on Operations Relating to the Circulation of Goods and on Provisions of Interstate and Intermunicipal Transport and Communication Services (ICMS), that is, resources from all tax payers in Santa Catherine.

Since 2021, the TCE/SC has been alerting the Foundation about the legal requirement to provide transparency to transfers via PIC. In 2021, a precautionary decision had determined the suspension of transfers. The decision ended up being revoked after the FCC presented a schedule for implementing a system that would allow public monitoring of millionaire transfers.

The aforementioned schedule, however, was not met. Considering the government transition, the deadline for adjustments was extended. Subsequently, a new date was established, and, again, the deadline was not met. A third request for extension was presented, without any guarantee that it would be complied with.

The second decision suspending the Program, confirmed by the Plenary, in a virtual session that ended this Tuesday (2/4), comes after successive requests for extension of deadlines to adapt the transfers, without action by the FCC that points to compliance legislation regarding the principles of advertising, impersonality and morality.

The Court of Auditors is not unaware of the State’s obligation to guarantee everyone the full exercise of their rights to sources of culture, in addition to the duty to support and encourage the appreciation and dissemination of cultural manifestations (art. 215 of the Constitution); however, the materialization of such foundations is compromised due to the absence of social control mechanisms for the allocation and application of the financial resources involved, a result of the lack of transparency.

Source: TCE – (SC)