Expenses of AM senators, in 2021, would pay for 3 thousand ‘Emergency Aids’

Ana Carolina Barbosa – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS e BRASÍLIA- The three senators elected by Amazonas spent, in 2021, second year of the Covid-19, R$ 1,31 million only with the Quota for the Exercise of Parliamentary Activity (Ceap), popularly known as ‘Cotão’. The amount is 70.27% higher than the expenditure recorded in 2020 and is equivalent to 3 thousand Emergency Aids, considering the current value of R$ 400.

The beneficiaries of Auxílio Brasil, the government’s income distribution program that replaced Bolsa Família, started receiving R$ 400 in December. A Provisional Measure (MP), published in the Official Journal of the Union (DOU), created an extraordinary benefit that complements the installments already foreseen for the program, which allowed the December payment to reach this amount.

The biggest volumes were spent in the hiring of communication and marketing consultancies, communication advisory services, and content generation. In the last year, before the general elections, scheduled for October 2022, the expenses with these types of services by the three senators reached R$ 820,000, equivalent to 62.57% of the total.

In the overall balance, the senator who had the highest spending was Omar Aziz (PSD), with R$ 552,076. Eduardo Braga (MDB) took second place with R$ 398,937, and Plinio Valério (PSDB) last, with expenses totaling R$ 259,489.

All senators showed an increase in the use of values, if compared to 2020, the first year of the pandemic in Brazil, highlighting Omar Aziz, who chaired the Covid-19 CPI in the Senate last year and is in the last year of his senatorial term, marked by strong opposition to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The parliamentarian went from R$86,888 in public resources used, from Ceap, in 2020, to more than half a million, in 2021, an increase of more than 535%.

Braga, who also participated in the CPI of Covid-19 and is a pre-candidate for the Government of Amazonas, used R$ 364,064, last year, and Plinio Valério, R$ 318,696. The percentage increases were 9.57% and 12.7%, respectively. In both 2020 and 2021, the sessions in the Senate occurred, in part, in hybrid form.

According to the Senate Transparency Portal, the Quota System is managed by the Secretariat of Finance, Budget and Accounting of the Senate. The amount is earmarked for expenses such as renting real estate for political offices, purchasing consumables, contracting services to support parliamentary activity, transportation, publicizing the work of senators, purchasing airline tickets, land and river tickets, consulting services, etc.