PF sees relationship between robotics kit and another MEC scandal – 07/17/2023 – Politics

Investigations by the Federal Police into alleged irregularities in the purchase of robotics kits in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government show links with another scandal also with MEC (Ministry of Education) resources, this one initiated in the Michel Temer (MDB) government.

Authorities identified financial transactions between targets of Hephaestus operations, which investigates the robotics case, and Literatus, launched in 2021 to investigate suspicious purchases of school materials in the order of BRL 154 million.

Both cases used resources operated by the FNDE (National Education Development Fund), a body of the MEC.

The investigation on the robotics kit was suspended by decision of Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court). Provisional in nature, the determination will be submitted for judgment by the court in August.

Literatus mentions a central person in the robotics scandal: businessman Edmundo Catunda, a partner at Megalic, the supplier of the kits.

Investigators pointed out that the company GM Quality Comércio Ltda., Literatus’ main target, Antônio Fernando Mendes da Silva Júnior, transferred R$486,000 to 3 JC Serviços Administrativos Eireli, a firm on behalf of Catunda.

The same company from Catunda received another transfer, of R$ 48 thousand, from Livraria Praça de Casa Forte Ltda EPP, on behalf of a family member of Silva Júnior.

The PF began to investigate robotics purchases after the Sheet show, in April 2022, that the Bolsonaro government transferred R$ 26 million to seven cities in Alagoas to purchase robotics kits.

The municipalities had contracts with the Catunda company, which is close to the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL). The resources were from rapporteur amendments, part of the budget controlled by Lira.

Catunda’s name is also mentioned in Literatus for participating in an allegedly fraudulent bid for the benefit of Silva Junior in the acquisition of school kits.

When contacted, Catunda did not respond to the report. In a note, the defense of Antônio Fernando Mendes da Silva Júnior defended his innocence. “The defense […] refuted, through abundant evidentiary documentation, the suspicions”, says the text.

The investigators indicate that there is “full proof” that the public transfer policy was “directed towards the hiring of the business group of Pontual Distribuidora Ltda”, by Silva Junior.

Companies linked to him were left with half of the resources from a federal government initiative, in the amount of R$ 154 million, directed to cities in Pernambuco. This would have occurred from fraudulent bids, whose processes began in 2018.

Catunda’s relationships with Silva Júnior’s companies were essential for the robotics investigations to reach a now former MEC employee named Alexsander Moreira — in charge since November 2016, he was exonerated in June after being targeted by the PF.

Catunda has already represented a company owned by Silva Junior, who, in turn, made three deposits totaling R$10,000 to Moreira in May 2021, according to the authorities.

There were suspicious financial movements of BRL 737,000 by Moreira between October 2021 and November 2022. Moreira has connections with Megalic’s robot supplier and a company employee.

Moreira received Catunda at least 14 times at MEC, between 2020 and 2021. Also wanted, Moreira did not respond.

In both investigations, resources were transferred through a mechanism called PAR (Articulated Action Plan). Also in both cases there are transfers for municipalities to make purchases based on local competitions, supposedly fraudulent.

At MEC, Moreira worked with PAR. The general lines of the plan are defined at the Ministry, but the operationalization of transfers is carried out by the FNDE.

In the case of robotics, the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) did not identify how the reference value of BRL 176 thousand for the purchase of kits was included in the PAR. The value is the same as in the bids won by Megalic.

It was Moreira who defended this inclusion in a note after the TCU questioned it. In Literatus, Moreira is cited as the author of guidelines for the so-called PAR 90 initiative. It was for this initiative that the school kits were purchased, with a series of irregularities.

Despite being cited, Catunda and Moreira are not listed as investigated in Literatus.

PAR initiative 90, created in August 2018, consisted of offering federal resources to municipalities and states for the purchase of Portuguese language and mathematics teaching materials in order to improve performance in assessments.

Criteria were ignored, resource releases were accelerated, and beneficiary municipalities registered with the MEC even before the initiative was announced, in addition to suspicions of overbilling. One of the items purchased was a practical chess course at a unit price of R$437.

Literatus investigators reached two former FNDE directors: José Fernando Uchôa Costa Neto and Leandro José Franco Damin ‘Damy’. Both reached the position at the beginning of the Temer government, when the Minister of Education was deputy Mendonça Filho (União Brasil-PE), and have already left.

Damy was responsible for the board that carried out the transfers. Questioned, he said that he had not committed any irregularities and that it was not his responsibility to define who would receive funds.

Uchôa Costa Neto and his defense did not respond to the Sheet. He was once leader of the former DEM in Pernambuco and is close to Mendonça.

In addition to relating administrative decisions taken by him, such as a technical note with a price list, authorities indicate that Uchôa Costa Neto would have close relations with some of the suspects.

In a note, the deputy and former minister, who is not investigated, said he defended the conclusion of the investigation. Regarding Uchôa Costa Neto, he stated that the presumption of innocence is a constitutional precept.

Mendonça Filho pointed out that he left the MEC in April 2018 and that the PAR initiative under suspicion was created only later, in August. “I have no responsibility for its creation and operation.”

Former Minister Rossieli Soares, responsible for the portfolio when the initiative was created (and previously Secretary of Basic Education in the Mendonça administration), stated that the responsibility for implementation lies with the FNDE.

“Any initiative arises from the demand of the municipalities, following the criteria of the PAR Law, whose transfer is the responsibility of the FNDE and the execution is of the municipalities”, he said in a note. He is not named in the investigations.

Both Rossieli and Mendonça say they have no relationship with Moreira, the former MEC employee targeted by the PF. There is no information on who would have nominated him for the position.