Lula Left US$ 76 Bi in Unpaid Bills to His Successor, Some as Old as a Decade

Caixa Econômica Federal The administration of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left the Dilma Rousseff administration 128 billion reais (US$ 76 billion) in payable accounts. This is money that should have been paid out for work or services that are supposed to have been concluded.

According to Paulo Ziulkoski, the president of the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), 27.8 billion reais (US$ 16.5 billion) of that amount is owed to municipalities, with some of the payment obligations dating back to 2001.

Ziulkoski complains that one of the problems is the monopoly that the Federal Savings and Loan Bank  (Caixa Econômica Federal) has in managing the accounts (and receiving a 2% commission).

“There is a bottleneck at the Caixa,” says Ziulkoski, “that could be alleviated if other banks participated in these operations.”

Another problem is that the origin of many approved payments is in the form of congressional earmarks (“emendas parlamentares”). As such they are subject to frequent halt orders (“contingência”) by the executive branch.

A survey by the CNM found that the Ministry of Cities owes the largest amount to municipalities, some 7 billion reais (US$ 4.2 billion). The ministries of Health, Tourism and National Integration each owe 3 billion reais (US$ 1.8 billion) and the Ministry of Sports owes 1.2 billion reais (US$ 713 million).

“This is a complicated relationship that runs from the municipalities to the Caixa to the ministries to the Congress to the budget itself. The money has been appropriated and set aside but it has not reached the local level,!” says Ziulkoski, adding that a solution would be the creation of a fund.

“This fund would ensure that the money reaches the municipal government. The amount should be defined in the budget. This is money that would be used in emergencies such as floods or drought,” he concluded.

Electricity

Boosted by an increase of 10.6% in consumption in the industrial sector, Brazil’s overall electricity consumption in 2010 was up 7.8%, compared to 2009.

In fact, electricity consumption in the industrial sector in 2010 managed to rise above what it was in 2008, before the international financial crisis.

Consumption in the residential sector was up 6.3% in 2010, and 5.9% in commerce.

ABr

Tags:

You May Also Like

Flying from New York Woman Gets Sick, Dies and Is Robbed in Brazil

Brazilian-American Maria Petrúcia Ribeiro da Silva, 68, died soon after arriving in Rio de ...

UN Environment Effort to Involve 10 Million Brazilians

The preparation for Brazil’s II National Youth Conference on Environment starts next June 5th, ...

For UN Rapporteur Brazil Needs Affirmative Action to Deal with Marginalization

Racial discrimination is a structural and historical problem in Brazilian society, according to Doudou ...

Brazil Celebrates Antidrug Week Burning 80 Tons of Drugs

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will participate, today, in a ceremony at ...

Despite Crisis Brazil’s Leather Fair Repeats 2007 Performance

Brazil's Couromoda 2009 – The International Shoes, Sportsgoods and Leathergoods Fair – registered results ...

Mining in Brazil

Lula Ally Opposes Government Bill Regulating Mining in Indian Land

Senator Tião Viana (Workers' Party, state of Acre), the vice-president of the Senate, declared ...

Tourism Grows into US$ 4 Billion Industry in Brazil

Since the creation of Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism in 2003, sector revenue has practically ...

Brazil’s Banco do Brasil Gets Over 5,000 Last-Generation ATMs from Diebold

Brazil's Banco do Brasil is expanding its electronic services with the installation of more ...

French President Bets in Brazil that Lula Will Be Reelected

There is something slightly forlorn about the French President, Jacques Chirac’s four day visit ...

Brazilian Protesters Call Bush Terrorist and Burn His Effigy and US Flag

Approximately a thousand Brazilian students, a group of Palestinian women, and representatives of mass ...

WordPress database error: [Table './brazzil3_live/wp_wfHits' is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed]
SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `wp_wfHits`