Federal lotteries passed almost R$3 billion (US$556m) to Social Security alone. Sports and culture actions received more than R$ 1.9 billion (US$352m). As for the National Public Security Fund, onlending exceeded R$ 1.5 billion (US$278m). In total, R$ 8.046 billion (US$1.49b) was invested, in the last year, in social programs with resources from the games managed by Caixa Econômica Federal.
"If the lotteries are privatized, will they continue to transfer these values to the social areas or will these resources go to the profit of the controlling companies?", asks the President of the National Federation of Personnel Associations of Caixa Econômica Federal (Fenae), Sérgio Takemoto. “In addition to rewarding bettors, lotteries allocate about 40% of resources to finance public policies in education, health, sports, culture, and public security, reinforcing Caixa's social role, which is and must remain 100% of Brazilians,” he adds.
However, as the president of Fenae observes, the government ignores the uncertainties of the economic crisis and insists on the privatization, in pieces, of Caixa Econômica. “The public bank proved to be essential to Brazilians, especially in this pandemic,” emphasizes Takemoto.
Last week, the president of the state-owned company, Pedro Guimarães, admitted that he has “a total focus on selling slices of subsidiaries.” The plan is to sell, besides the federal lotteries, four other pillars of the bank through IPOs (Initial Public Offering of shares) of the sectors of Security, Cards, Resource Management and the not yet formalized Banco Digital, besides other 24 related companies.
On the 27th, Caixa issued a statement informing that it intends to resume the public offering of Caixa Security. This is the third attempt to sell this subsidiary. In September, the bank suspended the IPO alleging adverse market conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The IPO of Caixa's subsidiaries will not save the country's economy. It represents, in fact, the weakening of the bank 100% of Brazilians,” adds the president of Fenae.
Takemoto warns that, with the market instability in this unprecedented economic crisis, the population will be the most affected if Caixa loses the subsidiaries that the government plans to sell. “They are what allow, for example, the bank to be the leader in financing the lowest rates for the purchase of home ownership and to carry out programs and actions in the entire social area, in addition to Financing for Higher Education Students (Fies),” he points out.
Source: Folha do Bico
