Lula’s minister’s amendment becomes work that harms residents – 05/08/2023 – Power

“The inspection witnessed several reports that rainwater was directed towards the homes of the local community, affecting the safety and quality of life of the people who live there.”

This is how an inspector from the federal state-owned company Codevasf described the condition of the draining of one of the paving works funded by funds allocated by the current Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil), when he was a federal deputy.

Based on this inspection, the company considered that the work was at 0% completion and punished the person responsible for the service, the contractor Construservice, which is being investigated by the Federal Police on suspicion of corruption in the state-owned company’s contracts.

Until reaching the indication that time and public money were spent for a zero result, a path was taken that includes political direction, deviations and suspicion of corruption.

The starting point for this script was a letter dated December 13, 2019.

In it, without giving any technical justification, the then deputy Juscelino indicated to Codevasf how R$ 10 million should be distributed for paving works in his electoral stronghold, the city of Vitorino Freire, and in the municipalities of Lago da Pedra and Brejo —all in the Maranhão.

This amount was part of the federal government’s investment budget and was released to Juscelino during negotiations to increase the support of the National Congress to the Planalto Palace, in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

“I heard that a lot of people spread this information in the city, making noise, but omitting a very important point, the resources for these paving are the result of parliamentary amendments of our authorship”, said Juscelino, in 2020, in a video recorded for the population of Stone Lake.

Records in commitment notes from the federal government, in addition to documents from the Ministry of Regional Development, show that he allocated at least R$ 77 million from 2019 to 2021 in amendments and other federal funds.

Codevasf used the funds to close contracts with companies that had been selected through a relaxed bidding modality that was adopted by the state-owned company.

In addition to the irregularities in this work carried out by Construservice, control bodies found overbilling of R$ 3.3 million in services from three other Codevasf contracts that used funds indicated by Juscelino.

In the case of the work in Lago da Pedra, budgeted at BRL 1.3 million, the initial deadline for delivery of paving in interlocking concrete block ended in October 2021.

Codevasf accepted three requests from the construction company to extend the deadline. Even with the delay, the part of the work presented was considered precarious by the state-owned company, with poorly executed drainage that pushes rainwater towards the houses.

Documents obtained by Sheet via the Access to Information Law show that Codevasf only started to verify the quality of the service at the end of 2022, when the contract inspector was changed.

This exchange occurred precisely because of suspicions of corruption linked to Construservice. That’s because Federal Police agents discovered that the contractor paid R$250,000 to Julimar Alves da Silva Filho, manager of Codevasf who supervised the service in Lago da Pedra, among other works.

The investigation suspects that the payment was a bribe. The state company, then, decided to redo the opinions of the contracts that were inspected by Julimar.

The new inspector reports, in the documents handed over to the reporter, that he did not even find the basic design of the service within the contract paperwork. There were only general indications about which streets should be paved.

The photographs of the work attached to the inspection report show broken concrete blocks and unfinished gutters on dirt streets in Lago da Pedra. When contacted, Construservice declined to comment.

The company was trying to receive payment of R$ 244,000 for about 20% of the service, which was denied by Codevasf.

The CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) also says that it found irregularities in three other contracts, of around R$ 10 million, for Codevasf works with Juscelino’s amendment budget. The body recommends the return of R$ 3.3 million for overbilling in services in Lago da Pedra and Vitorino Freire.

In these cases, the controller visited the cities two years after the conclusion of the services. Officials of the control body claim that they came across low-quality asphalt.

Images of the work attached to the CGU report show that the floor crumbles like “farofa”. Drainage is also poor on paved roads.

These three contracts were executed by Engefort, a company appointed by the technical area of ​​the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) as the leader of a cartel of companies that compete for Codevasf works.

The supervisor of these works was also the manager removed from Codevasf on suspicion of corruption.

Minister says he is not responsible for the works

In a note, the advice of Minister Juscelino Filho said that the responsibility for the projects lies with the contractor and the contractor, not with the author of the amendment.

“Assigning is insisting on putting him in a role that does not belong to any deputy, revealing that this type of inference is nothing more than an empty persecution, based on distortions and untruths.”

wanted by Sheet in order to comment on the irregularities pointed out by the inspections, Codevasf stated that it issued a notification to Engefort for “immediate presentation of prior defense, as well as for regularization of nonconformities related to the quality of services, in order to proceed with compensation”.

“After the end of the prior defense period, Codevasf will examine the justifications presented by the contractor and define the appropriate measures and possible sanctions”, he reported.

The state-owned company informed that it started procedures for the reanalysis of the contracts supervised by the retired server Julimar Alves.

By means of a note, Engefort denied that there is “any kind of favoritism in the auctions, as well as irregularities in its works” and that it has relations with the minister Juscelino Filho.

The contractor stated that the CGU inspection report is a preliminary document and therefore would not comment. “Engefort Construtora is committed to complying with all applicable laws and does not condone any illegality”, she adds.

A Sheet sought the defense of Julimar Alves, but got no response.