PF target received robotics kit supplier 14 times – 07/09/2023 – Politics

A now former employee of the MEC (Ministry of Education) pointed out by the Federal Police as involved in an alleged criminal scheme to purchase robotics kits with public money held a series of meetings with the partner of the company supplying the equipment. The two are investigated by the PF and were targeted in operations at the beginning of last month.

Alexsander Moreira, who was assigned to the MEC from 2016 until the beginning of June this year, received 14 times Edmundo Catunda, a businessman close to the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL). Catunda owns Megalic, the company from Alagoas that had contracts with several municipalities to supply robotics kits.

The meetings took place between 2020 and 2021, still under the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government.

The PF investigations began after a report by the Sheet show, in April 2022, that the Bolsonaro government allocated BRL 26 million for seven cities in Alagoas to buy robotic solutions, despite suffering from serious infrastructure deficiencies —the amount was equivalent to 68% of everything that had been paid across the country in the heading for the purchase of materials, evidencing prioritization in transfers.

All cities had a contract with the same company, Megalic. Federal resources, released and transferred at unusual speed, were the so-called rapporteur’s amendments, a billionaire part of the Union budget controlled by Lira. A Sheet also revealed that Megalic paid BRL 2,700 for the robots and sold them to city halls for BRL 14,000.

The Catunda family has a close relationship with Lira. A Sheet showed that Edmundo Catunda went to the FNDE (National Fund for the Development of Education) with Luciano Cavalcante, the closest adviser to the mayor and also being investigated. The resources that supplied the purchases came from the FNDE.

The PF found documents with references to Lira and a list of payments linked to the name “Arthur”. The seized document lists BRL 834,000 in amounts paid in 2022 and 2023 —of this total, at least BRL 650,000 has the name “Arthur” in front of the amount.

The investigations ended up at the STF (Federal Supreme Court) after the PF found direct quotes to Lira. The deputy and his assistant deny wrongdoing.

Edmundo Catunda and Alexsander Moreira were approached, but did not respond to questions.

With regard to Moreira, the authorities identified suspicious financial movements of BRL 737,000, with part of the amount deposited in cash, between October 2021 and November 2022. He also received three deposits from a man whose company was represented by Edmundo Catunda.

In the Bolsonaro government, Moreira was general coordinator of Support for Networks and Educational Infrastructure at MEC. The area operates in the resource transfer system through which the money for the kits came out, the so-called PAR (Articulated Action Plan).

He was the one who signed a technical note to support the Bolsonaro government’s response to inquiries from the TCU (Union Court of Auditors). One of the points questioned by the court was the base price of BRL 176,000 for each robotics solution (which includes robots, educational material and training).

This value was included in the PAR, despite the fact that the government did not have a record of this type of purchase. City halls acquired the kits from competitions held in the municipalities and which had Megalic as the winner, but which would be paid with federal money.

In these municipal minutes, the same amount of R$ 176 thousand was included. The technical note signed by Moreira defended the price included in the PAR. The TCU, in turn, concluded that there are no documents, such as a calculation memory, capable of substantiating this value.

Two of Catunda’s sons, former legislative advisor João Pedro and Maceió councilor João Victor Catunda (PP), were also with Moreira at least 12 times, three of them with their father. Both are mentioned in the investigation. The information on Moreira’s agenda was obtained via the Access to Information Act.

The data show that Moreira even had meetings with a legislative advisor to councilor João Catunda. Called Catharyna Davilla Duarte Barbosa, she was appointed by the Secretary of Education of Flexeiras (AL), who benefited from robotics kits, as a consultant in the release of resources in the MEC system.

This secretary told Sheet, in April 2022, that Catharyna began her work with the city hall in the robotics case and acted in other procedures related to the MEC. She also reported that it was Lira’s intervention that ensured the transfer to the municipality.

Councilor Catunda said, in a note, that he never addressed the robotics issue with Moreira, that he went to the MEC because he worked with the issue of education and that he met the former employee on the recommendation of someone from the ministry, unspecified, to talk about Fundeb .

“It is clear that my focus has always been on working with educational guidelines”, says the note. João Catunda also states that advisor Catharyna Barbosa was with the former employee representing the Education Commission of the Chamber of Maceió, which “has sought to monitor and monitor the agreements within the scope of the PAR”.

Also in a note, Catharyna Barbosa argued that she was with Moreira at the request of João Catunda, who chairs the Education Commission of the Maceió Chamber, to deal “exclusively with basic education issues in the municipality of Maceió, in the specific case, with construction works of paralyzed nurseries in the municipality”.

Moreira joined the MEC in November 2016, during the Michel Temer (MDB) government, when Deputy Mendonça Filho (DEM-PE) was Minister. His schedule indicates involvement in debates on robotics purchases since at least 2017.

Before arriving at MEC, he worked for two years at Pete, the main supplier of robotic equipment for Megalic. Moreira is linked to two other investigators who also worked at Pete. One of these people is currently employed by Megalic.

He had been promoted by the Lula government (PT) to the position of director, but was exonerated after being the target of a PF operation.