Lula’s minister would have employed a private pilot and stud farm manager in the Chamber, says newspaper

Minister Juscelino Filho, of Communications, would have employed the manager of his sister’s stud farm in Vitorino Freire (MA) and his private plane pilot in the accounts of the Chamber of Deputies, according to an investigation by the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo published in this Tuesday (28).

According to the publication, which had the data checked by the People’s Gazetteemployees receive BRL 7.8 thousand and BRL 10.2 thousand, respectively, and were hired by the then deputy between 2016 and 2018.

Re-elected for the term of federal deputy in 2022, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil-MA) took leave from office to occupy the portfolio of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), but his alternate, Dr. Benjamin de Oliveira (União Brasil-MA), kept them appointed in the cabinet.

According to Estadão, the manager of the stud farm, Klennyo Ribeiro, would have admitted to working at the place in a telephone conversation carried out last month from a telephone number found in the post of an event at the place. However, he would have changed the version after a new report contact this Monday (27), saying that “I don’t touch there [no haras]
no more”.

doctor Benjamin would also have confirmed Ribeiro on the staff of the stud farm. According to data consulted by the People’s Gazette on the transparency portal of the Chamber of Deputies, Klennyo has been a parliamentary secretary since 2016 (see in full)

The pilot Leumas Rendder Campos Figueiredo would have told Estadão that “I don’t owe anyone the satisfaction of my life”. Records of Juscelino’s campaign in 2018, at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), point to expenses with the pilot, the same year in which he became parliamentary secretary in the Chamber, according to data confirmed by the People’s Gazette also on the transparency portal (see full text).

He would also be managing partner of two companies based in São Luís, such as Like Serviços Aéreos and Centro de Instrução de Avião Ltda.

According to a normative act of the board of directors of the Chamber of Deputies (see in full), the role of parliamentary secretary comprises basic secretarial attributions, such as writing correspondence, speeches and opinions of the Parliamentarian; assistance to people referred to the office; follow-up of matters of interest to the parliamentarian, receipt and delivery of correspondence, among other related activities.

The rule also prevents parliamentary secretaries from being part of the corporate structure of companies and from performing functions that generate a conflict of interests or schedules with the activities of the cabinet. O Estadão found that the pilot Leumas Rendder does not publish records on social networks about his parliamentary functions, only as a pilot.

In addition to Klennyo and Leumas, Estadão points out that the office once occupied by Juscelino would also have employed the deputy’s aunt, between 2021 and 2022.

Juscelino Filho was sought by the People’s Gazette to comment on the information, but did not comment until the close of the report. To Estadão, he said that the signings were made “in accordance with the rules of the Chamber”.

“They carry out their activities with zeal, professionalism and regularity, in support of parliamentary activity in Brasília and in the State, whether in person, whether in a hybrid or remote model in the pandemic,” he said in a note.