Fundo Social do Pré-Sal no Brasil: Marco Legal e Institucional, especificidades e desafios na promoção do Desenvolvimento Humano

Abstract

The discovery of the Pre-Salt, in 2006, brought hope to Brazil for a new cycle of development, combining economic growth with advances in social well-being. The new legal and institutional framework for oil and natural gas exploration, approved by the National Congress, defined the creation of the Pre-Salt Social Fund, which had the following main objectives: to encourage long-term savings; raising funds to finance education and health, two pillars of human development; reduce the macroeconomic impacts generated by the commercialization of natural resources. The article intends to discuss the implementation of the Brazilian model, between 2010 and 2019, seeking to analyze its specificities, fulfillment of its purposes and amount distributed to the aforementioned social areas. When compared to the Sovereign Fund of Norway, it is observed that the management of the fund in the Brazilian case is more susceptible to political interference, given the absence of transparency mechanisms in the legislation. The investigation showed that the Pre-Salt Social Fund collected, in the period from 2012 to 2019, a significant volume of resources, but that was not distributed to the educational field, or to the Unified Health System, remaining deposited in the Single Account of the National treasure. This happened because the federal government did not create the two management institutions provided for by law: the Financial Management Committee and the Deliberative Council of the Social Fund.