TCU asks Bolsonaro entourage to return luxury watches received from Qatar

The Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) asked, late this Wednesday afternoon (1st), that members of the entourage of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) who traveled to Doha, Qatar, in 2019, return luxury watches received as a gift from the country’s government.

A People’s Gazette had access to the judgment signed by the rapporteur Antonio Anastasia and by Vital do Rêgo, acting vice-president of the Court, in which he accepts a request made by federal deputy Ivan Valente (Psol-SP) on at least nine watches from the Hublot and Cartier brands, which can cost up to BRL 53 thousand.

“The receipt of gifts for personal use with high commercial value goes beyond the limits of reasonableness applicable to the exception hypothesis provided for in art. 9 of the Code of Conduct of the High Federal Administration and in art. 2, II, of Resolution CEP 3/2000 (protocol and symbolic exchange of gifts between members of diplomatic missions), in disagreement with the principle of public morality, provided for in art. 37, caput, of the Federal Constitution”, says the judgment.

Valente’s representation states that the watches were received by Ernesto Araújo (former Minister of Foreign Affairs), Osmar Terra (federal deputy, MDB-RS), Sérgio Segovia Barbosa (former president of Apex-Brasil), Gilson Machado (former -Minister of Tourism) and Caio Megale (former Secretary of the Ministry of Economy) when they were back in Brazil.

The entourage was also composed of Onyx Lorenzoni (former Minister of the Civil House) and General Augusto Heleno (former Minister of Institutional Security), who would have left the gifts in their offices. The former ambassador of Brazil in Doha, Roberto Abdala, would have returned the watch “due to its high cost”.

The Public Ethics Commission of the Presidency of the Republic (CEP-PR) even analyzed the case in 2021, but did not identify a “conflict of interest” or “infringement of an ethical standard” by receiving the watches by four votes to three of the members .

However, Anastasia considers that the objects exceed the limit of reasonableness and recommends that CEP-PR clarify “the circumstances of receiving gifts offered by members of the Government of Qatar to members of the official delegation traveling to Doha on 10/28/2019 , in order to ensure compliance with the highest ethical standards expected by society”.