Multilaser delays delivery of notebooks to schools in SP – 03/16/2023 – Educação

The Secretary of Education of São Paulo, Renato Feder, said that he will fine Multilaser, a company in which he is one of the shareholders, for delay in delivering notebooks to state schools.

Feder was CEO of Multilaser and is still a shareholder in the company through an offshore company. The company was contracted for BRL 200 million by the Department of Education, at the end of last year, to supply 97,000 notebooks to schools in São Paulo within a period of up to two months. Thus, she had until the end of February to deliver the computers, which did not happen. The delay was reported by Metrópoles and confirmed by Sheet.

In a note, Multilaser confirms that it has not yet delivered all the equipment within the period established in the contract. “So far, delivery of the first batch has already been completed at 97.37%, which represents 9,250 products,” said the company. This means that less than 10% of the total purchased by the state was delivered on time.

“Due to decentralized deliveries, that is, school by school, logistical issues and in regions with difficult access, as in the case of the north coast of São Paulo, they had to wait and will be attended to later”, said the company.

This Thursday morning (16), the secretary said that Multilaser has already been notified and that it will be informed of the fine. He did not, however, say the amount of the punishment.

The secretariat’s contracts with the company were signed in December last year by the previous management, when Feder had already been announced by Tarcísio to be in charge of the portfolio.

At the time, Feder stated that he would leave Multilaser and that, therefore, there would be no conflict of interest in being responsible for overseeing the execution of a contract with a company with which he has a connection.

It was later revealed, however, that Feder holds 28.16% of Multilaser’s shares through another company, called Dragon Gem LLC, headquartered in Delaware (USA), a well-known tax haven.

This Thursday, the secretary also said that another company contracted to supply notebooks to schools, Positivo, will also be fined for delay in delivering the equipment. A Sheet tried to contact the company, but did not receive a response until the publication of this text.

The TCE (State Court of Auditors) determined the opening of an investigation to determine the legality of the contracts and possible conflict of interests of the secretary.