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News > Latin America

The 'Asphalt Cartel' Swindled Millions During Bolsonaro's Rule

  • President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil, 2022.

    President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @emirsader

Published 10 October 2022
Opinion

The Brazilian far-right president "handed over control of the state-owned company to Centrão lawmakers in exchange for political support," Brasil de Fato said.

On Monday, the Brazilian outlet Folha de Sao Paulo published information showing that the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) found evidence of fraud for some US$192 million in contracts from the Sao Francisco & Parnaiba Valley Development Company (CODEVASF).

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The judges detected that a cartel of contractors manipulated the results of the public tenders called during the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro. The TCU audit report recommended suspending the start of new public works linked to the suspicious offers.

However, this recommendation was not heeded by Jorge Oliveira, the judge in the case, whom the Brazilian president nominated for the Federal Court.

The corruption scheme's main beneficiary would be the Maranhao Engefort Construction Company, which won public contracts worth US$172 million, using the paper company Del to handle part of the 2021 bidding processes.

The tweet reads, "Jair Bolsonaro sympathizer teacher makes the Nazi salute in the classroom. This happened in Parana and the Directorate condemned the educator's attitude."

The TCU audit also found a drastic reduction in the average discount of bids from 24.5 percent in 2019 to 5.32 percent in 2021. In this last year, for example, the Engefort company won 50 bids, in which it granted an average discount of 1 percent, well below the standard. This was not, however, the first complaint associated with CODEVASF.

On Oct. 4, the Federal Police's Odoacro Operation presented evidence of fraud in the bids and embezzlement of funds in the works awarded to that company. As a result, authorities dismissed a manager. According to data from the NGO Contas Abertas published by oulet G1, the Bolsonaro administration authorized a budget of US$1.7 billion for CODEVASF since 2019.

"Using a multi-million dollar budget, Bolsonaro handed over control of the state-owned company to Centrão lawmakers in exchange for political support," Brasil de Fato commented.

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