Accounting maneuver damages Petrobras' reputation.
If the Workers' Party (PT) is no longer concerned with its own reputation, it should at least have the decency to preserve the credibility of state-owned companies and the country.
In a scenario of economic stagnation and investor distrust regarding the resumption of growth, the Brazilian government has been excelling in the technique of "creative accounting" to balance its accounts. Last year, the primary surplus target was only achieved because the authorities decided to deduct R$ 39,3 billion from the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) from the fiscal target, in addition to anticipating the receipt of dividends from state-owned companies and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), and using resources from the Brazilian Sovereign Fund (FSB) that should serve for emergencies during times of crisis. In total, more than R$ 40 billion were spent on accounting tricks alone.
The same strategy has been adopted by Petrobras, which has made changes to the way it accounts for its debt exposed to exchange rate fluctuations in order to improve its results for the second quarter of this year. The state-owned company removed the effects of dollar fluctuations from its balance sheet for this period, which should represent a gain of R$ 7 billion, in addition to reducing its exposure to exchange rates by approximately R$ 70 billion and increasing the distribution of dividends to shareholders, the main one being the Brazilian government.
Creative accounting compromises Petrobras' reputation and further alienates investors, especially in an environment of increasing uncertainty about the performance of the Brazilian economy. As if such irresponsibility weren't enough, this tactic undermines the institutions of the Republic and causes a crisis of confidence, in addition to representing self-deception by the government which, in reality, leads to widespread deception and harms the entire Brazilian population.
The dilapidation of Petrobras intensified under the reckless management of its former president, José Sérgio Gabrielli, a member of the Workers' Party (PT), who relied on the support of the Lula government to transform the company into a stronghold of the most base political interests. The company lost 40% of its market value between 2010 and 2013, falling from second to fourth place on the list of the largest gas and oil companies in the Americas. Petrobras' net profit in 2012 fell 36% compared to the previous year, the worst result since 2004. On the Stock Exchange, the state-owned company lost US$32 billion in market value.
The fiscal juggling act, allegedly orchestrated by the National Treasury Secretary, Arno Augustin, was also adopted in other areas of the government, such as the transfer of billions raised from Treasury bond issuances to state-owned financial institutions, which are returned in the form of "dividend" payments to mask the primary surplus. Last year, BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) had a profit of R$ 8,1 billion and remitted R$ 12,9 billion in dividends. The same happened with Caixa Econômica Federal (Brazilian Federal Savings Bank), with R$ 6,4 billion in profit and R$ 7,7 billion in dividends. But the price paid by these institutions is high: according to the Brazilian Institute of Economics (Ibre) of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, BNDES lost 38% of its assets between March 2011 and March 2012.
Accustomed to the fallacy of propaganda, which for the last decade has sold a fantastical reality of the Brazilian economy, the government distorts fiscal data to bolster its house of cards. If the Workers' Party (PT) is no longer concerned with its own reputation, it should at least have the dignity to preserve the credibility of state-owned companies and the country.