Brazil: Federal auditor says Rousseff govt guilty of reckless management

The head of the Department of Government Macro Analysis of Brazil's Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), Leonardo Albernaz, said in his testimony before the Procedural Impeachment Committee of the Senate on Monday (Jun. 13) that the TCU has not rejected Rousseff's 2014 government accounts “for nothing”.

According to him, more than 50 TCU auditors carried out an expert review of Rousseff's accounts and unanimously concluded that her government has conducted the “most reckless management” of public finance since the Fiscal Accountability Act that regulates public spending was enacted in May, 2000.

“The TCU [auditors] has no interest whatsoever in suspending a president. This is not the role of an auditor or event the role of the court [of accounts],” Albernaz said. According to him, the court auditors have been admitted through civil service examinations rather than political appointments and are free to give their own authoritative opinion and this precludes influences on the findings of the expert reports for unfounded reasons.

“What we produced was a report written by more than 50 auditors based on findings that were ultimately confirmed by more than five rulings. And when we moved to reject the government's 2014 accounts, that was not for nothing. It was because in 2014 we saw the most reckless management of Brazil's public finance since the Fiscal Accountability Law was enacted,” he went on.

Albernaz's statement was a reply to Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, who accused the auditors of producing a report that is overly critical of the government, misleading TCU justices and the society into believing that President Dilma Rousseff had been guilty of malfeasance.

Translated by Mayra Borges