The Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) counts 234 cases of requests for data via the Law on Access to Information (LAI) to be reviewed or reanalyzed. The measure stems from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s determination to review the rules of secrecy of federal public administration documents. “Based on the dispatch from the President of the Republic, it was determined that we review and re-analyze cases involving secrecy based on questionable grounds, in order to trivialize secrecy and undermine the policy of public transparency”, said today (3) the Minister of the CGU, Vinicius Carvalho, when presenting an initial balance of the results obtained so far. The determination for the transparency of federal expenses has already resulted in the disclosure, on January 12, of expenses with the corporate card of the former Presidents of the Republic between 2003 and 2022. The information released covers the mandates of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010 ), Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016), Michel Temer (2016-2018) and Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). Access requests According to the controllership, between 2019 and 2022, 511,994 requests for access to information were registered. Of these, 64,571 were denied in whole or in part. “What caught my attention was the fact that, of this total, only 2,510 were appealed to the CGU, which reveals that many people give up along the way, after having their initial request denied. See that the percentage of resources made to the CGU is less than 5%”, said the minister. Still according to Carvalho, 1,335 of the approximately 2,500 requests that were appealed received a denial, in response to the request for access to information. Justifications Of the 234 cases of requests for information that will be analyzed or revised by the agency, 111 presented as justification the fact that they involved national security; 35 presented as justifications issues involving the safety of the President of the Republic or his family members; 49 covered information considered personal; and 16 related to the protection of intelligence activities. Also according to the CGU, 23 requests were denied for “other reasons”. “As of Monday (6th), those who requested this information will begin to receive the results of the CGU’s decisions”, informed the minister. Carvalho explained that the numbers presented “speak more of quantitative than qualitative”, and that quantitative data have to be looked at carefully, because they do not say much about the qualitative issue. “For this reason, we are more interested in data relating to the arguments presented than numbers”, said the minister. Setbacks According to the magistrate, the criterion was adopted because “in recent years we have witnessed some important setbacks in relation to access to information and the entire transparency policy of an open government.” Based on the material under analysis, he assesses that the previous government ended up “using certain categories to expand secrecy, in order to make access to information difficult”. He used as an example of categories, those of national security and protection of personal data for situations where they do not fit. “Transparency is a logical result of the principle of publicity in our constitution, which helps a lot in improving public policies and monitoring government action. It is therefore something instrumental.” Cases under analysis The minister avoided talking about specific cases when asked by journalists, but his team listed examples that are under analysis, including people entering and leaving public buildings, the murder of PSOL councilwoman Marielle Franco; ex-president Bolsonaro’s expenses with motorcycles; payments of artists’ fees made by Caixa; cases of payroll loans made by beneficiaries of the Auxílio Brasil; registrations of firearms; lists of passengers on Air Force flights; and public purchases involving the Army and Armed Forces The minister recalled that a public servant who does not comply with the access to information law “is subject to responsibility”, but that the CGU will be careful to avoid injustice when analyzing the reasons for denial of access to information. what we evaluate is the argument that was given”, he said. Suggestions In order to strengthen the Access to Information System, the CGU presented some suggestions to be adopted. by the administration and public bodies. Among them, strengthening the Council for Public Transparency and Combating Corruption; creation of guidance and training programs; qualitative assessment of responses to requests for access to information, using artificial intelligence to reduce resources to higher levels; standardization of procedures and proposition of normative acts; and issuance of guidelines for harmonizing the guarantee of access to information with other laws and rights. The controllership also suggested the promotion of the Access to Information Law as an instrument of social participation, through articulation with civil society organizations for guidance and training projects for access to information, both at the federal, state and municipal levels.
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