“It is clear that the State does not exercise this regulatory function properly”, he maintained, adding that there are private companies performing these functions without the State fulfilling its “regulatory and supervisory function” to ensure “that public service obligations are guaranteed”.
Passos considers that “sometimes” private individuals do not fulfill the functions entrusted to them by the State, “unfortunately in moments that are important and decisive for people’s lives”.
For the former Government leader, “the services are not adequately financed, there has not been enough investment for them to be able to carry out their mission in the long term”, even at a time when “there are means to be able to do so” and it is not like in 2010, 2011 or 2012, when there was “not a penny to be able to invest”.
“It’s not this particular tragedy. There is a diverse set of situations in which the State fails, where people feel that the State is not where it should be, and this is not something that can be resolved overnight”, he argued.
Passos argued that the failures are not limited to the current sequence of storms, but to a set of situations in which “people feel that the State is not where it should be”, in which the lack of response takes years to be noticed, but is visible in the long-term disinvestment and “in the choice of competent people to take care of the services”, without specifying failures or targeting those responsible in particular.
Asked what advice Luís Montenegro would give when choosing the Internal Administration portfolio, Passos says he is “very reluctant to give advice” even to those who ask for it. “The more to those who don’t ask us”, he concluded.
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