Repasses federais e desigualdades regionais: a alocação de recursos públicos no marco do saneamento básico

Abstract

Basic sanitation in Brazil involves a regulatory environment shared by federal entities with different socioeconomic realities. This project was based on the question of whether the allocation of federal public resources for basic sanitation would contribute to the correction of regional asymmetries or would tend to reinforce historically consolidated inequalities between federal entities. The hypothesis was formulated that criteria that require high technical, financial and institutional capacity, but do not explicitly consider socioeconomic vulnerability, would concentrate investments in the most structured entities, aggravating disparities. In order to verify this premise, a deductive method, qualitative approach and bibliographic-documentary analysis of standards, data from the National Sanitation Information System, GDP per capita and Social Vulnerability Index were adopted. The results partially confirmed the hypothesis, because although Law 11.445/2007 contains provisions that mention inequalities, distinguishing protection aimed at users of already installed services and criteria for expansion and installation of basic sanitation services, the practical application of transfers from the General Budget of the Union and the Brazilian Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento lines, through the verification of empirical data, maintained the historical concentration of resources in the already favored regions. The national average of indicators masked marked disparities: municipalities with consolidated infrastructure pull the indexes upward, producing an appearance of progress that does not reflect the reality of vulnerable areas. It is concluded, therefore, that the current design of the financing criteria does not meet the constitutional command to reduce regional inequalities, when the indexes are observed, and the legal redistributive parameters did not meet the degree of socioeconomic vulnerability of the federative entities.