São Paulo state representatives criticize Tarcísio for dismantling the Poupatempo service center and fear data leaks to private companies.

247 - Deputies from São Paulo's left-wing bloc in the Federal Chamber reacted with indignation to the revelation, this Friday (21), that the state governor, Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), would be promoting the dismantling of Poupatempo, a service that offers hundreds of services to the population of São Paulo using citizens' personal data.

The allegations gained prominence after a report by Folha de São Paulo, which revealed the opening of a civil inquiry by the Public Ministry of São Paulo to investigate suspicions of dismantling Poupatempo. The objective of the Palácio dos Bandeirantes would be to justify the privatization of the service. The investigation, initiated on Wednesday (19), points out that the change in the operating model could cause “serious moral damage to the population of São Paulo”, as highlighted by the Public Heritage prosecutor, Karyna Mori.

On social media, left-wing parliamentarians vehemently criticized the measure. Guilherme Boulos (Psol) attacked the governor's "privatization frenzy," stating that there is no justification for privatization and warning that Tarcísio could be even "more dangerous" than Jair Bolsonaro. Orlando Silva (PCdoB) highlighted that the quality of services would drastically worsen if privatization is carried out. Erika Hilton (Psol) drew attention to the risks to the security of the population's data, which would pass into the hands of the private sector.

Check out the reactions below: 

"This guy wants to privatize even the Poupatempo (a government service center).

Folks, Governor Tarcísio's privatization frenzy knows no bounds. The Public Prosecutor's Office has just opened an investigation to look into the clear signs of the government's active involvement in dismantling and subsequently privatizing the service.

For those outside of São Paulo: Poupatempo is a public service approved by the majority of São Paulo residents. There is no reason to transfer its management to the private sector.

And Tarcísio is doing the same thing with public education. 33 state schools are in his sights and are expected to be managed by private companies.

Behind the guise of a 'moderate right' figure, he is undermining the state's public policies. Don't be fooled: the governor of São Paulo is as dangerous, or even more dangerous, than his boss.", wrote Boulos, in a post on the X platform. 

"It's always the same: the neoliberal logic of Bolsonaro's regime is to ruin everything that benefits the people in order to give it away to the market for free. The bill is left to the population, who pay dearly for worse services, as seen with Sabesp. It's the criminal destruction of public services!", Silva wrote in X. 

"Is Tarcísio going to shut down Poupatempo?

The Tarcísio administration is being investigated by the Public Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of neglecting the Poupatempo service center in order to privatize it.

And this privatization has everything that is WORST, even the sale of the personal data of São Paulo residents.

Come and understand 

Today, Poupatempo is managed by PRODESP, the Data Processing Company of the State of São Paulo, a state-owned company.

It's impossible to list everything PRODESP does here, but in addition to Poupatempo, it also manages data, provides software and IT services, offers consulting services, implements digital transformation projects, and much more, for the state public sector and municipalities throughout the state.

According to the latest available annual report, PRODESP had a total revenue of R$ 3,5 billion in 2023, invested R$ 431,9 million in digital transformation in our State, and still had a PROFIT of R$ 236 million.

And the reason for this result is that it is more worthwhile, cheaper, and more efficient to hire PRODESP to manage things than to use the private sector.

But even so, Tarcísio wants to remove the administration of Poupatempo from PRODESP and privatize it.

For this, your government issued a tender worth an estimated 3 billion reais to manage Poupatempo units throughout the state. And guess who's going to pay those 3 billion? YOU!

This math simply DOESN'T ADD UP. Tarcísio wants to transfer the administration of Poupatempo to the private sector at a cost of 3 BILLION of our taxes, almost the total annual revenue of PRODESP itself, which already manages it for us, and also helps the entire state, invests in technology and makes a profit.

Furthermore, the privatization notice calls for the SALE of our state's people's information. Decades of accumulated data on each and every one of us are being sold to who knows whom, and for who knows what purpose.

The Public Prosecutor's Office also suspects that the tender was specifically designed to direct or facilitate the winning bid for a particular company.

In other words, it's a senseless privatization, suspected of corruption, that will cause the State to LOSE money, and our data will be sold.

If this goes ahead, the Poupatempo service as we know it will END. Everyone who has ever used it knows how important it is in streamlining our lives, which it has always done very well. But this privatization proposal threatens its operation.

Is this what you want for São Paulo?", wrote Hilton on X.