The Public Ministry (MP) at the Federal Audit Court (TCU) asked the Court to open an investigation into irregularities in the management of Telebras — a state-owned company linked to the Ministry of Communications.
According to the representation, signed by deputy attorney Lucas Furtado, the company carried out “fiscal fraud” that could reach R$77 million.
The TCU considers this procedure to be irregular, as it violates the Constitution. The conduct can be considered administrative improbity and a crime of responsibility. It was a similar situation that led to the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT).
“It is important to note that this practice, operationalized through the use of the strategy of using the budgetary instrument of ‘previous year’s expenses’ can only be implemented, as understood by the TCU itself, in exceptional cases, under the risk of causing the accumulation of debts of the state entity, generating distortion of fiscal results and leading to premature exhaustion of the budget for the following year, negatively impacting planning and distorting fiscal responsibility”, says the document.
The origin of the representation is a report published by the website Universo On-line, which obtained, through the Access to Information Law (LAI), an accounting report sent by Telebras to the federal government.
In it, the state-owned company reported that it had requested extra resources in 2023 — requests are made to the Ministries of Communications and Planning — but that, in the face of denials, it pushed a “high volume” of commitments to 2024.
Telebras’ budget was R$612 million last year — a limit value for spending on salaries, infrastructure maintenance and execution of works, for example.
The Constitution prohibits the public administration from making expenses or assuming obligations in amounts that exceed the budget ceiling to avoid uncontrolled spending.
In practice, according to the website, the state-owned company artificially increased last year’s budget by 12%. THE CNN tried to contact Telebras, but so far has not received a response.
“In the case of Telebras, it is important to highlight that all these risks are transferred to the Union, as, as it is a state-owned company dependent on the federal public budget, the resources used are resources from the central government, which could be channeled into public policies essential, such as health, education and security”, highlights the deputy attorney in the representation that will be submitted to the TCU ministers.
Ministry says company board is responsible for decisions
The Ministry of Communications reported that Telebras has a duly constituted board of directors and board of directors. “In this way, all strategic and operational decisions are the exclusive responsibility of these bodies.”
“The Ministry of Communications clarifies that Telebras is a state-owned company that was scrapped between 2019 and 2022 to be privatized by the previous management. One of the consequences of this process was the accumulation of debts with suppliers, the problem of which is being resolved by the current management, after its withdrawal from the National Privatization Program”, he reinforces in a note.
The ministry also claims that, for the 2024 and 2025 budgets, sufficient resources were requested for Telebras to fulfill its obligations, in addition to requesting, during the year, the release of resources to pay off the debt with suppliers.
“For 2025, for example, a budget of R$1.2 billion was requested for the company, but the annual budget bill, given the limitations of economic policy, contains R$586 million. In 2024, due to the restrictive scenario, the claim was for R$ 1.3 billion, however the approved amount was R$ 549 million, of which R$ 343.8 million has been released so far”.
