Lula gives office to secretary who was investigated for cracking in Rio

Former deputy from Rio de Janeiro André Ceciliano (PT-RJ) took over at the beginning of the month the Secretariat for Federative Affairs of the Secretariat for Institutional Relations of the new government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Ceciliano was one of those investigated by the Public Ministry of Rio de Janeiro in 2020 on suspicion of participating in the cracking scheme in the state Legislative Assembly. The millionaire scheme, which involved hiring ghost employees or employees forced to return part of their salaries, was the target of harsh criticism from Lula during the 2022 presidential campaign, for raising complaints that suggested atypical financial movements in the office of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro ( PL), when he was still a state deputy, between 2003 and 2019.

According to information from Veja magazine, Ceciliano appeared at the top of the list as a beneficiary of almost R$ 50 million in the scheme. Investigations against him were archived after the State Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro assessed that there was no transfer of funds or amounts from cabinet officials to their personal accounts, their family members or among the servers themselves. The lawsuit against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro was also archived.

Although Ceciliano’s nomination has not yet been made official in the Official Gazette (DOU), he is already working in the role and was mentioned by Minister Alexandre Padilha during his inauguration, at the beginning of the month (see full text).

The former deputy has been participating in official acts of the secretariat and registers the meetings and meetings on social networks. Last week, he participated in a meeting with mayors that make up the Consortium of Municipalities of Alta Mogiana (Comam), and another with mayors of the Intermunicipal Consortium of Vale do Paranapanema (Civap), among others.

Ceciliano was sued for administrative impropriety

Three years before the discovery of the crack scheme at Alerj, André Ceciliano was accused by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) of administrative impropriety for the use of federal resources in works in the Rio de Janeiro city of Paracambi, when he was mayor between 2001 and 2008.

According to the MPF action, Ceciliano would have signed an agreement with the Union for works to recover from a flood in 2001 in the amount of R$ 568 thousand to hire a company without bidding.

At the time, the prosecution claimed that the service was hired two years after the phenomenon, when there was no longer an emergency situation decree, delegitimizing the waiver of the process.