Under pressure, Nunes vetoes contracts without bidding in SP – 04/13/2024 – Panel

Pressured by reports of possible irregularities in hundreds of contracts without bidding at São Paulo City Hall, Ricardo Nunes (MDB) ordered his secretaries to end the use of this method from now on.

From now on, hiring without bidding should only be made when there are explicit requests from the Public Ministry or Justice, in accordance with the instructions given by the emedebista to his subordinates.

The amount spent by São Paulo City Hall on emergency works, which do not require bidding, grew by 10,400% in five years, according to a report from Sheet. The value increased from R$20 million in 2017 to R$2.1 billion in 2022.

The municipal administration had been saying that contracts without bidding were made based on technical certificates from city hall and Civil Defense engineers, stating that they were for emergency works that could not wait for a bidding deadline.

According to a UOL report, however, the Municipal Audit Court concluded in an audit that the city hall has manufactured emergencies to spend money on direct hiring.

Reports from UOL and Sheet showed a proliferation of contracts without bidding and evidence of price combinations between competing companies, which has been contested by the Nunes administration, which says it seeks the most advantageous prices for the municipality.

They would be taking place in works to contain slopes, interventions on the banks of rivers, streams and storm sewers, restoration of walkways, bridges or viaducts and also in engineering services for works at schools in the municipal network.

A Sheet identified, for example, that almost half of a total of 111 contracts signed last year involve disputes between companies controlled by the same family group, some of which have registered offices in unidentified residential properties on the outskirts of São Paulo.

In these cases, the exemption from bidding would be occurring through the fragmentation of contracts into smaller values, below R$100 thousand, which allows the adoption of this modality instead of traditional competition.

No-bid signings have become one of the main flanks of the Nunes administration and have been frequently exploited by his likely opponents in the re-election campaign, Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) and Tabata Amaral (PSB).

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