Recipe continues with names seen as bolsonaristas – 01/23/2023 – Market

While former chiefs and even prominent technicians in Bolsonarist management were exonerated or are vetoed to compose the new teams in the ministries of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Federal Revenue officials find it strange that some colleagues who are seen as ideological supporters of the previous administration.

Some attribute this situation to the fact that the new Revenue Secretary, Robinson Barreirinhas, a career attorney for the City of São Paulo, is new to the body and has not had time to inquire in depth about the history of the institution and the team. He was announced for the position on December 22 by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad (PT).

The Federal Revenue was one of the bodies that suffered political intervention and cut resources during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Internal expectations are high in relation to the PT’s new management. The state of mind in relation to servants associated with Bolsonarism got worse after the vandalism to the headquarters of the three Powers.

Therefore, it is strange, for example, that Juliano Neves remains in the post of Undersecretary for Corporate Management, while other undersecretaries were summarily dismissed on January 1, 2023, as soon as Lula was sworn in.

Neves is a career employee and already held a position of trust within the Revenue in the management of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT).

In early 2019, he headed Cotec (General Coordination of Technology and Information Security) and was involved in investigations within the Revenue to try to free Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), son of the former president, from the process that investigates a suspected “split” with the salaries of employees in his office when he was still a state deputy for Rio de Janeiro.

The investigation against the senator was opened in 2018, based on data from Coaf (federal financial intelligence body). In 2020, the senator’s defense lawyers claimed that Coaf information had been illegally collected by Revenue servers in Rio.

The search for tax data of taxpayers cannot occur indiscriminately, and the server is punished if he accesses it without justification. Invalidating data collection at the Revenue Service became strategic at that time for Flávio’s defense.

Documents obtained by Sheet by the Access to Information Law showed that Neves launched an investigation to identify the colleagues who would have gathered information not only about the senator, but also about the then president, his two other political children, two of his ex-wives, the first- lady Michelle Bolsonaro and Fabrício Queiroz, former advisor to Flávio and alleged operator of the scheme.

Neves’ action took place shortly after the senator’s lawyers questioned the origin of the Coaf information and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro himself sent a petition to the Revenue Service on the case, in August 2020.

In the document, the senator asked “with the utmost urgency” for the body to identify “name, CPF, qualification and exercise unit/capacity” of Revenue auditors who, according to him, since 2015 had accessed his tax data, his wife, Fernanda, and related companies.

The senator wanted the investigation to be carried out directly by Serpro (Federal Data Processing Service), the state-owned company that provides services and systems to the Revenue Service. This specific request for verification via Serpro was formally denied.

However, according to a report by Sheetbased on documents from the Revenue, Neves asked Serpro for a special investigation into who would have accessed Bolsonaro’s tax data and people close to him.

The survey requested by Neves identified the “logs”, as the files on consultations with the Revenue systems are called. They bring the date and name of the auditor responsible for the query.

In May 2022, the cracks case was archived after different court decisions in favor of the senator. In the same year, the Internal Revenue Service disclosed that it had found no evidence of irregularities in the collection of information that had been passed on to Coaf.

After the probe, Neves was promoted to the position he holds until today, already in Lula’s government.

Among colleagues, there are reports that the current undersecretary is a serious technician, who has already bought important fights in defense of the institution. His participation in the probe, however, divides opinions to this day.

Some servers understand that he had no alternative. They say he’s a professional who goes as far as he can in an attempt to convince his superiors when he doesn’t agree with some guidance, but if he can’t dissuade his superiors, he accepts the decision and carries out the order by being faithful to his superiors.

Others, however, believe that in the case of the wanton he had an ideological role, so much so that he was promoted afterwards. With his attitude, Neves would have helped the previous government in the process that some call the dismantling of the Federal Revenue and its principles, as he participated in an interference in the body.

Sources linked to the command of the body, in turn, see an attempt to wear down Neves, who has as one of his attributions in office to deal with demands from the corporation.

Last year, the auditors carried out a strong mobilization for the regulation of the efficiency bonus created for the category. The measure would increase the amounts paid to employees, but depends on a presidential decree. There was an expectation that the Treasury command would be able to unblock the edition of the act, which did not occur.

Interlocutors close to the summit claim that the negotiations between the undersecretary and the category sometimes generated friction and that Neves is seen as a server with a technical profile, and there is, so far, nothing concrete that discredits him.

The tenure of the undersecretary is also associated with greater interaction with the new economic team during the transition period. This would be the reason why Neves was spared the wide dismissal of civil servants who held senior positions in the federal government during the Bolsonaro administration.

Another colleague associated with Bolsonarist management who draws attention among the agency’s employees is Luiz Fernando Nunes.

The report of Sheet made contact with Neves and Nunes, who did not respond until the publication of this text. In a statement, the agency’s advisory said it would not comment on the cases.

Until the end of 2019, Nunes was Undersecretary for Taxation and Litigation. Currently, he is a technical advisor in the same area. The Revenue officials were surprised when his name started to be mentioned for the post of new Internal Revenue inspector, as there are those who believe that he could not remain even in his current position, which is area coordination.

Sources linked to the command, in turn, claim that the new secretary Robinson Barreirinhas does not know Nunes, nor has he had contact with the server.

Nunes is very active on social networks, especially in a group of tax auditors with more than 2,000 members. In this space, he has already promoted Bolsonaro, questioned Lula’s finances and the morals of the left. He also made posts against the voting machine. Some of these messages were collected by group members and passed on to the report.

In May 2022, he published the message: “It’s not right to be suspicious of electronic ballot boxes… but why do only Brazil, Bangladesh and Bhutan use this means? Why do the USA, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy and Japan maintain, until today, ballot vote?”.

In August, he posted another along the same lines: “I don’t understand… so the system is no longer inviolable ?!?!”, attaching a report entitled “TSE sets up anti-hacker strategy after warning of attacks in the elections”.

It also dealt with issues related to gender, race and political options. Regarding the disappearance of indigenist Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips, whose murders were confirmed after the bodies were located, Nunes wrote:

“Every day people disappear. Some are found dead and others simply disappear forever, without explanation. Why is there such a stir with an indigenist and a journalist? Are they better than the others?”

Another post said: “In a BBB with wide diversity — women, blacks, poor, gays, trans people participated — the victory went to a white, straight, rich man, who cheated on his wife with 16 lovers. To the despair of Anitta and others from the laceration class.”

Some people who have already worked with Nunes claim that he “has strong positions”, but “does not change with the wind” and tends to defend State positions. Others admit that he has a history of criticism among the agency’s employees.

Anyone who questions the permanence of these colleagues at the Revenue claims that they are not promoting witch hunts or disrespecting freedom of expression, but thinking about preserving the organization’s principles.

The institutional mission of the Revenue Service, recall these interlocutors, is “to carry out tax and customs administration with fiscal justice and respect for the citizen, for the benefit of society”, which means not giving in to government interference at the time and working to preserve the institutions of State, respecting the social and political differences of taxpayers.