Robotics kit with Lira amendment resulted in a loss of BRL 4.2 million – 06/09/2023 – Power

The CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) points out in a report a loss of at least R$ 4.2 million to the public coffers in contracts for the purchase of a robotic kit in the municipality of Canapi, in Alagoas, funded with a parliamentary amendment by the President of the Chamber, Deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

The federal government body analyzed two contracts with amendment resources for the purchase of robotics kit, support material for students and teachers and teacher training.

In total, BRL 7.4 million were passed on to the company Megalic by the city of Canapi, BRL 5.7 million of which in 2022 – money from the so-called rapporteur amendment indicated by Lira. The use of the Lira amendment was revealed by the newspaper O Globo.

Documents sent to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) show that Lira indicated around R$ 32 million in resources from this Budget allocation for actions by the FNDE (National Fund for Education Development) in nine cities in Alagoas, including the resources used in the purchase of robotics kits at Canapi.

The CGU report is used by the Federal Police in operation Hefesto, which targets deviations in contracts signed by Megalic, whose partner is an ally of the president of the Chamber.

A Sheet revealed suspected irregularities in the purchase of robotics kits during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government in April 2022, which gave rise to investigations by the PF.

A Sheet he was in the city of Alagoas in 2022 and showed that none of the 35 schools have a science laboratory, for example, and more than half do not have access to the internet.

School coordinator Rosiane Maria Silva da Paz told the report that the announcement of the robotics project excited the teachers, as it was a novelty. But there were many other priorities.

“On the issue of water, having it on tap would make it easier, in addition to having more rooms and maintaining the internet. Painting would also be important, I have faith in God that the renovation will come out”, said Rosiane at the time.

She studied at the same school. “The patio still needs to be renovated because it is made of earth and we don’t let the boys run on the ground, which has a lot of stones.”

The CGU lists at least four problems in hiring Megalic and suggests irregularities in the processes for acquiring robotics kits.

According to the Controllership technicians, what made the overpricing possible were “irregularities/improperties in carrying out market research, to estimate the value of the contract and define the maximum ceiling to be disbursed”.

There was also, says the CGU, a lack of planning in purchases, which resulted in the acquisition of a single type of kit in greater quantities than necessary. This failure alone would have caused a loss of BRL 537,000.

The dispute won by Megalic, says a PF report based on the CGU, was directed since there were specifications in the public notice that restricted competitiveness.

In a note signed by lawyer Eugênio Aragão, Megalic’s defense claims that there is a “serious mistake” in the suspicions and that all contracts were based on technical parameters of the Ministry of Education and the National Fund for the Development of Education, with a bidding process and wide competitiveness.

The note says that the Federal Court of Auditors did not see any direction or incompatible prices and that the report by the Sheet that gave rise to the investigation improperly compared Megalic’s products with kits of inferior quality.

Megalic and its partners are at the center of the robotics kit case investigated by the Federal Police of Alagoas.

Lira is not investigated and says that the Board of Directors of the Chamber was responsible for forwarding the amendments to the rapporteur. “Therefore, the information that these amendments were intended by Deputy Arthur Lira is wrong”, says a note released by the parliamentarian.

• In the image below, Edmundo Catunda, owner of Megalic, and Arthur Lira in a meeting in Alagoas

Companies, partners and Lira’s main assistant, Luciano Cavalcante, were targets of the operation on June 1st.

The PF analyzed Megalic’s financial transactions and reached a series of companies headquartered in Brasília and identified as a front. The firms have as partners Pedro Magno and Juliana Cristina and people connected to them. The couple was monitored by the PF throughout 2022 and later this year.

From the follow-ups, the PF says it discovered that the couple could be the operator “of a considerable and broad money laundering scheme in several states of the Federation, hiding and disguising assets, rights and values ​​arising from criminal practices committed by various criminal groups, with or without connection to each other.”

Between November 2022 and January 2023, the police accompanied and filmed at least a dozen trips by the couple to bank branches and deliveries of values ​​in the federal capital, in nearby cities and in Maceió —in the capital of Alagoas, the delivery took place in January of this year.

In this January episode, the couple of operators was caught going to the house of Lira’s advisor and his wife, Glaucia Cavalcante, driving the vehicle used to deliver valuables.

The same truck monitored in Maceió, according to the investigation of the Sheetwas used by Lira and declared to the Superior Electoral Court in the 2022 campaign, when the deputy was re-elected.