Federal government wastes money on frivolous advertising.

The year has barely begun and the blunders of Michel Temer's coup government in the area of ​​communication are already national scandals. First, the Ministry of Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation decided to launch a lavish campaign against dangerous driving behavior. While the intention was laudable, the execution of the advertising pieces – billboards and television ads, handled by the agency nova/sb Comunicação – only provoked indignation and outrage.

With the slogan "Good people kill too," the federal government's campaign highlights situations in which people who rescue animals, plant trees, or are exemplary students become a threat on the roads due to speeding, cell phone use, drunkenness, and similar misdeeds. And the texts are categorical: "The best student in the class can kill," warns one ad, for example, alongside a photo of a young Black man.

After much criticism on social media and much controversy in the press, the government promised, on Wednesday (4), to withdraw the advertisement from circulation. What Michel Temer does not explain is how he will reimburse the public coffers for all the taxpayer money spent on the production and dissemination of the ill-conceived propaganda.

As if that weren't enough, another serious communication error by the Temer government came to light this Thursday (5). A report from a website checked the material and found distortions in the economic data presented by the PMDB administration in an announcement published in newspapers on December 29. What should have been an account of the 120 days of government counted from Temer's effective inauguration on August 31 turned out to be a collection of exaggerations and untruths.

To boast about "four months of intense work," the federal government lists 40 items that, according to them, are "some of the many measures that have already become reality." The jumbled list includes "feats" such as the reduction of Brazil's risk rating (which actually increased by 14 points), the fall in the dollar exchange rate (in reality, the dollar rose), and a poorly explained "moralization of appointments in state-owned companies." Michel Temer also makes a mistake in his calculations and exaggerates, in the same announcement, the shares of state-owned companies, the trade balance surplus, and the commissioned positions and functions that were supposedly eliminated.

As chairman of the Financial Oversight and Control Committee of the Federal Chamber, I await clarification from the Executive Branch regarding the suitability of its disclosures and suggest the creation of a committee of experts to monitor and approve its advertising materials. After all, the government, which does not produce its own advertising, demonstrates a lack of competence in approving the work it commissions from agencies that win bidding processes. An independent committee tasked with this monitoring would ensure that less public money is wasted so unnecessarily.