Amendments irrigate Codevasf and benefit associations of relatives and allies of deputies

Less than a week after the government released R$5.3 billion in amendments on the eve of the vote on the tax reform project in the Chamber of Deputies, and another R$3.2 billion after the proposal’s approval, an investigation published this Monday ( 10) by Newspaper points out that the state-owned Codevasf was one of the main beneficiaries of the resources.

Widely used to accommodate nominees from allied parties and one of the Union’s largest budgets, the company would be privileging associations linked to relatives of politicians for the delivery of vehicles and agricultural machinery throughout the first half of this year. In May of this year, another investigation pointed out that Codevasf reduced from 74% to 52% the services performed directly to city halls, benefiting activities aimed even at agribusiness and associations of miners.

Also in May, a Folha investigation confirmed by the People’s Gazette showed that the state-owned company intended to expand the number of regional superintendencies to accommodate political allies from the base of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), in the states of Pernambuco and Minas Gerais.

Originally, Codevasf focused on developing irrigation projects in the Brazilian semi-arid region, taking advantage of the potential of the São Francisco River basin. In recent years, it also started to cover areas of the Parnaíba River.

And it was exactly in Minas Gerais that a consortium of municipalities chaired at the time by Diógenes Silva (Podemos), mayor ofVirgin da Lapa, received a drilling rig worth R$2.4 million. The equipment is attached to a truck and used to drill artesian wells.

The resources were passed on to Silva by his nephew, federal deputy Igor Timo (Podemos), who published videos on social media in January claiming to be responsible for the equipment along with former senator and now Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira. Timo said that it was a “coincidence” for a member in question to join the consortium, as “he had already held the municipal election two years before the parliamentarian had political pretensions”.

Another Codevasf piece of equipment, a truck, was sent to the Lagoa Nova Farm Residents’ Association, in the municipality of Santaluz, Bahia. The entity is chaired by Keise Suzart, daughter of councilor Mário Sérgio Suzart, who presides over the City Council, and is one of the main political allies of federal deputy Elmar Nascimento (União Brasil/BA).

Nascimento was the main articulator of União Brasil’s support for the Lula government even during the transition period, at the end of the past. He was quoted for National Integration, but the chosen one was the ally, Waldez Góes (PDT).

However, he managed to place fellow member Juscelino Filho (MA) as Minister of Communications and, still to be confirmed, but already taken for granted, federal deputy Celso Sabino in Tourism (PA). The congressman is a request from União Brasil in the reassessment it is making of its presence on the Esplanada — and at Lula’s base.

Still in Bahia, the state-owned company sent a backhoe to the Colony of Fishermen and Aquacultors Z-15 in Valença, an entity chaired in the past by federal deputy Raimundo Costa (Podemos-BA), who has his son, Ryan Costa, as manager of projects and machines donated by Codevasf. He denied that he makes political use of the equipment.

In a note to the report, Codevasf stated that the donations “are in the social interest” and are preceded by analyzes of technical suitability, legal compliance and socioeconomic convenience.

“The formal requirements demanded for the donation concern the legal personality of the benefited associations. Thus, the fact that its representatives or members eventually have party affiliation or are part of a business society does not characterize a legal impediment to the donation of goods to associations”, he added.