Bolsonaro authorized CGU to investigate false vaccination at the end of his term

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said, in a statement to the Federal Police this Tuesday (16), that on December 29 of last year, three days before the end of his term, the then Chief Minister of Comptrollership- General of the Union (CGU), Wagner Rosário, asked for his authorization to publish his vaccination card. Bolsonaro said in the deposition that he authorized the disclosure, but that if there was something wrong, he determined that the case would be investigated.

The interrogation, which lasted more than 3 hours, sought to clarify whether or not the former president authorized the insertion of false data into the Ministry of Health system, by assistants, recording that he had taken doses of vaccine against Covid. In the statement, Bolsonaro denied and claimed ignorance, including in relation to the action of his main assistant, Colonel Mauro Cid.

The document that records the statement, obtained by the People’s Gazettetranscribed the former president’s response as follows:

“He replied that on 12/29/2022, the former minister of the CGU, Wagner Rosário, contacted the declarant requesting authorization to lift the secrecy of access to his vaccination card, as a result of requests through the Law of Access to Information-LAI; who agreed to release access to the card, but advised that if there was anything wrong, that the relevant investigation be carried out ”, he says.

In one part, however, he was asked if he was aware of the Covid vaccination records in his name. Bolsonaro stated that:

“That in February of this year, through the press, the declarant became aware that the CGU instituted, at the end of 2022, a procedure to investigate possible fraud related to his vaccination card, forwarding a copy to the Federal Police-PF for the investigation of possible criminal offenses; that the declarant became aware of a dose applied on 07/19/2021, in the Perouche neighborhood, São Paulo-SP; that on said date he was not aware of the false insertions made in the city of Duque de Caxias in his name; who clarifies that the communication authorizing the disclosure of his vaccine card was carried out by telephone, in connection with his former minister of the CGU, Wagner Rosário; which clarifies that the beginning of the investigation involving the insertion of false vaccination data against Covid-19, in his name, occurred during his mandate by the CGU, with referral to the PF ”.

In fact, the investigation actually continued, but during the new government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). In February, the CGU considered releasing the document, which ended up not happening because the body was still investigating the insertion of false data in Bolsonaro’s card.

The investigation was passed on to the PF, which already had Mauro Cid’s cell phone messages, in which he dealt with the subject with other interlocutors who would have participated in the scheme. In his testimony, Bolsonaro also mentioned this advance in the investigation, noting, however, that it began during his government.

With data provided by the CGU with the Ministry of Health, the PF investigation revealed that false certificates registering doses for Bolsonaro were issued in the Conecta-SUS application on December 22 and 27, on computers of the Presidency. On December 30, when he traveled to the United States, another false certificate was issued, but from the cell phone of Mauro Cid, who flew with the former president to Orlando, Florida.