On Monday (18) this week, the National Confederation of Financial Workers (Contraf) filed a request to suspend the internal discussion taking place in the Federal Government on the subject. The letter was sent to the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, in which the Confederation still expresses the desire to promote a dialogue with trade unionists.
On the same day, the National Federation of Caixa Econômica Federal Managers Associations (FENAG) sent a document to the financial institution asking for clarification regarding the process of migrating control of the lottery companies to the subsidiary.
“We understand that this measure goes against the defense of this institution, more than a century old, which provides relevant services to the Brazilian people. Thanks to the efforts of the union movement, and in particular, of our elected councilor who represents the employees at the top of the company, our colleague Antônio Messias Rios Bastos, here in Bahia as well, we were able to suspend the vote within the scope of the board of directors. I want to record our position against this discussion. We understand that it is a setback,” stated Augusto.
In the previous year, Caixa’s ltteries raised a total of R$23.4 billion (US$ 4.7bn). Of this total, R$7.9 billion (US$ 1.6bn) was paid to bettors in the form of prizes, while R$9.2 billion (US$ 1.85bn) was allocated to social programs of the Federal Government in the areas of social security, education, health, culture, sport and public security.
In other words, more than 40% of profits from Lottery operations return, every year, to society, in the form of social investments. This possibility only occurs due to the public management of Caixa Econômica Federal.
“We defend a 100% public Caixa, which ensures that the profits obtained by this bank, which offers relevant services to the country, are returned to society as a whole, as currently happens with the company's lotteries. An area in which there are no accusations of fraud, they provide an excellent service, there are no questions about results… Who is interested in privatizing this segment of the bank?,” said Augusto.
The creation of the subsidiary LOTEX (today Caixa Loterias) occurred during the Temer government, in 2016, with the purpose of preparing the privatization of operations. In 2023, under the management chaired by Rita Serrano, the subsidiary had become non-operational, as part of the process of closing its activities, however, information released in the press recently states that the Board of Directors of Caixa Econômica Federal must vote on the proposal to transform the public bank Lotteries into a subsidiary.
Vasconcelos expressed concern about the possible privatization and emphasizes that interfering in the operations already carried out by the Caixa Lotteries, as a public segment, would open room for corruption and money laundering, favoring companies that will have no interest in programs such as Bolsa Atleta, Minha Casa Minha Vida and Fies.
Source: GMB
