Lula acknowledges debt due to environmental assessment in SP – 12/07/2023 – Environment

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) recognized a private debt with the city of São Bernardo do Campo (SP), as a result of an environmental assessment, and therefore joined the municipal program for the regularization of taxes, thus dividing the amount.

The assessment, applied in 2017, refers to work on a site that is in his name, in a water source protection area of ​​the Billings Reservoir. It refers to the amount of earth moved during the work.

The president’s defense denies that there was any type of environmental infraction, as there was no violation of any prohibition. He states that the fine by the municipal inspector was solely due to a discrepancy in the calculation of the volume of land for the work.

The president thus joined the debt installment program with the municipality of São Bernardo and will need to pay six installments, totaling R$10,470. The first was paid when signing up to the installment module, in November. The next one will expire in December.

In 2017, the city sent an inspector to monitor the progress of work on the site. He would have noticed a discrepancy in relation to the amount of land that would be moved, disclosed by the contractors hired to carry out the work. With that, he fined Lula.

The current president, who took office in January 2023, then filed a public civil action against the city hall questioning this divergence and the assessment. This process has been ongoing since then, without completion.

Lula, however, has now given up on continuing with the action and has therefore joined the payment program under special conditions to settle debts with the municipality.

“The action had been filed to question the procedure adopted by the inspector responsible when inspecting the work, duly authorized, in 2017. The value of the fee [pela movimentação da terra] had been collected, but the inspector carried out a different calculation on the volume of earthworks foreseen in the respective guide, and the formal divergence gave rise to the assessment”, said, in a note, the president’s defense, signed by lawyer Roberto Piccelli.

“Despite the existence of a permit issued by the Municipality of São Bernardo do Campo and the conviction of the author and his defense for the oversight error, it was decided to adhere to a broad and general installment plan offered by the municipality, solely with the purpose of ending the litigation”, completes the text.

A Sheet, the lawyer also reinforces that the assessment was made exclusively because of the difference in the amount of land moved, which also resulted in the difference in the fee paid to the municipality. The defense rules out the existence of any type of environmental infraction.

“The construction engineer calculated the volume of earthmoving, the inspector arrived at another account [desse volume] and based on this divergence he was fined”, he stated.

“And this assessment is what gave rise to this process [iniciado pelo presidente] which runs at the same time that the tax foreclosure was taking place. The safest thing was to adhere to this installment plan, which was granted in an unrestricted manner by the São Bernardo prosecutor’s office. And by unrestricted, I mean for everyone [isso é oferecido]”, he added.