Contractor targeted by Lava Jato is qualified for bidding in Paraíba two days after bankruptcy

The contractor Coesa, which was called OAS and was one of the targets of Operation Lava Jato, was recently qualified for a millionaire bid by the government of Paraíba just two days after it was declared bankrupt.

The company won a bid worth R$206 million to build the Arco Metropolitano de João Pessoa, the state capital, but did not take up the process after one of the participating consortia questioned the authorization.

The authorization of Coesa by the government of Paraíba was taken on June 29th and published the following day in the Official Gazette, while bankruptcy was decreed by the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ-SP) on the 27th, according to the newspaper’s investigation. The state of Sao Paulo published this Friday (21).

The Permanent Tender Commission said, however, that it was not aware of the company’s bankruptcy at the time of qualification, and authorized it only based on the documents presented by Coesa on June 20 – before the TJ-SP decreed bankruptcy. “The commission only analyzes the documentation”, said Sebastião Cirino, chairman of the commission.

The CLC/Rocha/Coral consortium questioned the commission based on an article in the public notice that prohibits the participation of companies in judicial recovery, a process that Coesa had been facing since 2021. However, the contractor obtained a judicial authorization to participate in the bidding.

Cirino reported that the deadline for Coesa to respond to the consortium’s appeal that requested disqualification ended last Tuesday (18), but he was unable to say whether the company has manifested itself. “The company has the right to contradict, whether for or against,” he added. The contractor did not respond to questions in the report.