RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Democratic Labour Party (PDT) has petitioned the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to suspend the privatization of six state-owned companies – the Brazilian Mint, the Data Processing Service (SERPRO), the Social Welfare Information and Technology Company (DATAPREV), the Brazilian Agency for Guarantees and Guarantee Funds (ABGF), the Asset Management Company (EMGEA) and the National Center for Advanced Electronic Technology (CEITEC).
The case was distributed to Justice Cármen Lúcia.
The privatization of these companies is set forth in four decrees issued by President Jair Bolsonaro and two resolutions published this year. According to the party, the sale of companies cannot be carried out through executive decrees and resolutions, “in violation of the constitutional principle of legality, but rather by a specific law approved by the National Congress”.
The request for suspension is contained in a Declaratory Action of Unconstitutionality, in which the party requests the Court to nullify some provisions of federal Laws 9,491/1997 and 13,334/2016, which cover the National Program for Privatization – “by declaring the unconstitutionality of privatization without prior and specific legislative authorization of public companies and mixed-economy corporations whose very creation was authorized by specific statutes”.
The party states that there is an “exceptional risk of damage in the concrete probability of irreparability” if the companies are privatized.
According to the PDT, the current public policy of privatization should be reviewed, as it “unilaterally” reserves to the Executive Branch the prerogative of “handing over control of public companies to the private sector”.
Source: Estadão Conteúdo