Government selects 6,300 works for the PAC, but says that funds must come from parliamentary amendments | Policy

The Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, stated this Tuesday (30) that more than 6,300 works selected by the government for the New Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) depend on funds from parliamentary amendments to be executed.

According to Costa, these projects were authorized by the government to form part of the program, but were left out due to the lack of money to finance the works.

The minister gave the statement at a public hearing at the Senate Infrastructure Committee that discussed the New PAC plans.

According to Rui Costa, the works subject to parliamentary amendments make up the so-called PAC Seleções, one of the categories of the infrastructure investment program in which states and municipalities indicate priority works.

In total, there are 6,372 projects, divided into three areas: health (2,762), education (3,373) and sport (237).

“We created a category of qualified projects. These are projects that met the prerequisites to be met, but we did not have enough resources in the Union Budget to meet them”, he said.

“But we put it in the qualified category so that senators and deputies — through bench, committee, rapporteur, and individual amendments — can embrace these proposals and, eventually, place them as selected, through amendments. And we will treat it as if it were part of the PAC, giving it full priority and placing it on the list of PAC works”, added the minister.

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In March, the government published an ordinance to encourage the allocation of parliamentary amendments to the New PAC.

According to the rules, the amendments intended for the program will have a specific execution calendar, with commitment (phase in which the government commits the portion of the Budget for this purpose) until June of this year — following the deadline of the Electoral Court that vetoes voluntary transfers before the elections.

Parliamentarians who nominate amendments to the New PAC will also benefit from a kind of “pay one, get two”.

According to the ordinance, when allocating resources to a project already selected and underway in the PAC, the parliamentarian will have the right to indicate amendments for another project, in the same amount, which is in the qualified condition — precisely the category presented by Rui this Tuesday.

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The amendments make up an amount reserved in the Union Budget to be applied as indicated by parliamentarians. It is an instrument used by deputies and senators to send resources to their electoral bases.

The ordinance provides the benefits for the amendments:

• individual: they are mandatory (the government is obliged to pay). Each parliamentarian has a value to indicate individually in the Budget. The total amount for this type in 2024 is R$25 billion
• state benches: are also authoritative. The indication of how they will be applied is up to deputies and senators from the same state. This year, the value is R$11.3 billion for these amendments
• commission: non-imposing. resources indicated by thematic committees in Congress, both in the Chamber and in the Senate. President Lula vetoed part of this amount, which was R$11 billion

The New PAC was launched last August. The forecast is that by 2026 R$1.7 trillion will be invested in all states in Brazil. The money will come from resources from the Union Budget, state-owned companies and financing; and almost half will be the result of private sector investments.

In the PAC Seleções modality, according to the Civil House, 6,778 works were selected. This number could increase with the indication of amendments by congressmen. So far, investment in works in this category totals R$23 billion.