Bolsonaro delivered 55 gifts, most of them less than R$9,000 – 09/08/2023 – Power

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) delivered to the Union 55 gifts received from foreign authorities during his term, the majority (87%) valued at less than R$9,000.

A total value of R$444 thousand was attributed to this set, according to a document provided to the Sheet by the Presidency in response to a request via LAI (Access to Information Law).

Bolsonaro, therefore, transferred a minimum portion of what he earned to public assets. He left out, for example, the jewelry offered by Saudi Arabia and which put him in the sights of the Federal Police. The defense argues that he had legal support to keep the luxury items.

In the four years he governed the country, the former president accumulated around 19 thousand items offered by companies, people, national authorities and abroad. He received everything from jewelry valued at millions of reais to books and food, according to official records.

Among the 55 objects transferred to the Union there are sculptures, paintings, porcelain and even a shirt from the DC United football team framed in a painting, a gift from Donald Trump in 2020.

The Planalto area in charge of the presidential collections assigned values ​​between R$91.40 (painting sent by Greece) and R$8,981.12 (sculpture of a horse offered by India) to 48 items.

The piece with the highest estimated price (R$130,650) is a metal sculpture representing the yellow wagtail, Qatar’s national bird, offered to Bolsonaro in 2019 by that country’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The work is signed by British artist Solange Azagury-Partridge.

Also on the list is a table clock (R$ 97,890.83) made in silver and with gold-plated parts. The article was also a gift from Al Thani, in 2021.

The best-evaluated trio completes a marble model of the Taj Mahal temple (R$ 59,469.20), received by Bolsonaro in 2020 from the then Indian president Ram Nath Kovind.

Investigators involved in the jewelry case highlight the similarity between objects handed over to public property and pieces taken by the former president at the end of his term.

The PF investigation pointed out, for example, that one of the sets of gifts taken from the country to be sold consisted of two sculptures — a golden boat, without identification of origin, and a golden palm tree, received in 2021 on the occasion of Bolsonaro’s participation at a business meeting of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in Bahrain.

There is no estimate of how much Bolsonaro’s entire personal collection is worth, which includes, among others, watches, knives, ties, caps, football shirts, ammunition and weapons. The Presidency produced reports on the entire set of 19 thousand items, but did not detail values.

The personal collection was removed from the Alvorada and Planalto palaces in moving trucks during the last month of December. Part of it was taken to a warehouse in Brasília, located in an area owned by former Formula driver Nelson Piquet, a Bolsonaro supporter.

On Monday (5), the Public Ministry with the TCU filed a representation so that the court of accounts promotes a survey of all gifts and items received by the former president, “on the occasion of official visits or state trips abroad, or of official visits or state trips by foreign heads of State and Government to Brazil”.

Signed by attorney Lucas Rocha Furtado, the representation also requests that the return of gifts that meet this condition be determined, in addition to forwarding the document to the Attorney General’s Office, for the appropriate measures.

Bolsonaro’s defense understands that luxury items such as jewelry belong to Bolsonaro and that he had legal protection to dispose of them as he saw fit. This line of argument is supported by a law and a presidential decree that defined rules on the subject.

Law 8.394/1991, from the Fernando Collor government, deals with the preservation, organization and protection of the private document collections of the Presidents of the Republic.

According to her, the documents that make up the private presidential collection are, in their origin, property of the president, “including for purposes of inheritance, donation or sale”.

The norm says that the Union will have preemptive rights in an eventual sale and that the articles also “cannot be sold abroad without express manifestation of the Union”.

Based on these two standards, the former president’s lawyers say he had the right to sell the jewelry he received from Saudi officials. In reply to Sheetthey even attributed to a “mistake” or “misinformation” on the part of the advisory of the Presidency of the Republic the lack of prior communication about the former president’s intention to take the objects to the United States and sell them.

The defense disregards a judgment by the TCU (judgment No. 2255/2016) that defined stricter guidelines on the receipt and possession of gifts by representatives.

“Imagine the situation of a head of government presenting the president of the Republic of Brazil with a large emerald of inestimable value, or a valuable painting. of the Republic, since he receives them in this public capacity”, wrote minister Walton Alencar, rapporteur of the case.

Alencar highlighted the fact that the money to pay for gifts given to foreign authorities comes from public coffers. Therefore, on the other hand, the gifts received must also be public, “with the exception of items for personal use or of a very personal nature”.

The TCU stated that they should remain “as public property”, under the custody of the Presidency, “all other gifts — including works of art and three-dimensional objects”.

In this ruling, the court identified that, of 1,073 gifts received from 2002 to 2016, only 15 had been incorporated into public assets. With this, he ordered the return of 434 gifts given to Lula, from 2003 to 2010, and another 117 received by Dilma Rousseff, from 2011 to 2016.