Dnocs: Ministry denies favoritism towards PMDB.

Ceará247 - Following national and local media reports alleging that the interim government of Michel Temer (PMDB) was favoring his party by transferring the execution of several emergency actions in northeastern states to the National Department of Works Against Drought (Dnocs) – currently under the party's control – the Ministry of National Integration released a statement clarifying the matter. The text states that "the government is not favoring any political party in the allocation of funds" and points to increased transfers to governors from various parties.

Check out the full note:

"1) The statement that the government is favoring any political party in the allocation of funds to combat drought is incorrect;

2) The statement that "acting president Michel Temer (PMDB) removed the execution of works aimed at combating drought from the governors of the Northeast and transferred it to the National Department of Works Against Drought (DNOCS)" is incorrect;

3) The editorial differences and misinformation contained in the article published today in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo under the title “Temer transfers the use of funds against drought to the PMDB” and the article published yesterday (17) by Agência Broadcast, at 20:52 pm, under the title “EXCLUSIVE: ON THE EVE OF THE ELECTION, TEMER FAVORS PMDB WITH RESOURCES AGAINST DROUGHT” are strange.

1. a) There is a glaring contradiction between the verbs chosen by the print newspaper and the Broadcast edition. The newspaper's sentence is as follows: "Acting President Michel Temer removed the execution of works aimed at combating drought from the governors of the Northeast." The Broadcast published the sentence as: "The Ministry of National Integration decided to remove the execution of emergency works to combat drought in the region – and consequently the resources – from the governors of the Northeast and transfer it to the National Department of Works Against Drought (DNOCS)…". As can be seen, in the first case, the newspaper reader is led to understand that all drought relief works will be removed from state governments, which is a mistake. In the second case, the interpretation is that only the execution of emergency drought relief works will be removed and concentrated in the DNOCS. The first error is clearly an editorial one. The second error is a factual error, as demonstrated in items 5, 6, 7, and 8;

1. b) Another item with an information error is found in the sentence: “Furthermore, it was decided to increase the resources for these works that will be transferred to states governed by members of the party.” In addition to the states mentioned in the article, requests for increases or advance payments were also granted to the states of Paraíba, Governor Ricardo Coutinho (PSB), with R$ 15 million; Bahia, Governor Rui Costa (PT), with R$ 3 million; and Acre, Governor Tião Viana (PT), with R$ 960. As can be seen, there was no discrimination against political parties.

4) The strategic guidelines established by the Ministry of National Integration comply with current legislation;

5) The statement that “acting president Michel Temer (PMDB) removed the execution of works aimed at combating drought from the governors of the Northeast and transferred it to the National Department of Works Against Drought (DNOCS)” is incorrect. The truth is that only part of the quick-connect pipelines will have their physical execution divided between the Ministry of National Integration, Codevasf, and DNOCS. This represents only part of the EMERGENCY projects submitted by the governors. Other emergency works, such as the execution of emergency programs, will continue to be carried out by the state governments. Furthermore, the Ministry of National Integration is already receiving new requests for the release of more funds for state-level execution of works and programs against drought. By agreement reached today, the governor of Paraíba, Ricardo Coutinho (PSB), requested and received an immediate transfer of R$ 10 million and autonomy to execute several emergency works, including a quick-connect pipeline. This proves that there was no concentration in DNOCS nor discrimination based on political affiliation. We would like to point out that this meeting had already been scheduled before the publication of the aforementioned report.

6) We also emphasize that all agreements already signed with the states for the so-called structural works, which were already being carried out by the state governments, are being honored;

7) Unlike before, all transfers have been regularized, and there are no longer any financial issues that threatened the execution of important works under the responsibility of state governments, which depend on federal resources to be completed;

8) We emphasize that a large part of the so-called EMERGENCY WORKS and PROGRAMS, as well as the STRUCTURAL ones, which represent the largest portion of the drought relief budget, will remain the responsibility of state governments, opening up the possibility of addressing other requests for works to respond to this water emergency;

9) The Ministry of National Integration refutes any interpretation that any state is being favored for political reasons. In fact, what is being done is the correction of distortions in the distribution of emergency resources for drought relief projects in the states that were receiving the lowest amounts. See the table below.

1 FRAMEWORK

10) As can be seen from the table, there was an increase in funding for governors from various parties;

11) Contrary to what the report says, the government is not breaking any agreements made.

Ministry of National Integration