Juscelino Filho denies having committed irregularitiesDisclosure
Published 04/29/2024 14:39
Brasília – The paving of the road that passes in front of the farm of minister Juscelino Filho (Communications), in Vitorino Freire (MA), only met the minister’s needs and did not benefit the local population. The statement was made by technicians from the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), in a preliminary report on the subject. The money was transferred by the São Francisco Valley Development Company (Codevasf), coming from the Secret Budget — Juscelino Filho admitted to being the godfather of the budget.
The work was revealed by Estadão in a January 2023 report, and began to be investigated by the Federal Police and the CGU. The minister denies irregularities and reaffirms that the works benefit the population.
The Federal Police suspect that Juscelino may be part of a criminal organization involved in embezzling funds from Codevasf — nicknamed “Centrão State” — in the city of Vitorino Freire (MA). The municipality is currently governed by the minister’s sister, Mayor Luanna Rezende. In September 2023, she was removed from city hall by the courts, after being the target of Operation Benesse, by the Federal Police. A few days later, however, she returned to her position thanks to a decision by Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Budgeted at R$7.5 million, the paving work in Vitorino Freire was contracted by Vitorino Freire city hall in February 2022 and was carried out by the contractor Construservice. Months later, in the middle of that year, the Federal Police arrested a businessman named José Barros Costa, better known as Eduardo Imperador and accused of being the true owner of the company. Juscelino Filho admits that Imperador has been “known to him for more than 20 years”. The dominance of Juscelino’s family over Vitorino Freire also dates back decades: with comings and goings, the minister’s relatives have controlled local politics since the 1970s. The clan has dozens of farms in the region, and eight of them are served by the road that Juscelino had it paved with funds from the Secret Budget.
In the report, the CGU assesses that the asphalting service does not serve the local population, as it does not connect the villages served to a highway or the city center of Vitorino Freire. The largest paved section is precisely the one close to the properties of the minister and his family, and the rest are isolated streets within the villages, with no connection to the highway or the central region.
“Of a total of 23.1 km, involving R$ 7.5 million, 18.6 km, 80%, would benefit the parliamentarian’s properties and, it seems, individually. The remaining 4.5 km would benefit five villages local areas and even in an isolated manner without integration with the state highway, nor with the municipal headquarters”, says an excerpt from the CGU report. The document was obtained by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by Estadão. This is a preliminary version, at a stage in which the CGU is still awaiting Codevasf’s response.
The Controller’s technicians also say that the 4.5 km close to the properties of Fazenda Alegria de Juscelino do not “prove to be sufficient to meet the objective of providing better drainage and access to public services for the population of the benefited villages, as a connection was not foreseen to get to the center of the city or a paved highway”. The report points out the existence of several other locations in Vitorino Freire with a “significantly greater” number of houses, without asphalting, and which could have benefited from paving, if the objective was to really serve the residents.
As not all of the funds were paid to the contractor, there is a risk of another R$1.5 million being lost with “potential risk of misuse of purpose, given that the social objective and public interest of the aforementioned agreement do not appear to be included in the project presented”, says the control body. Last November, Codevasf itself identified problems in the works, such as poorly laid asphalt, potholed streets, cracks, and lack of signage. According to the CGU, Codevasf itself had already identified losses to the public coffers in the order of R$ 736.2 thousand, due to these problems. According to the technicians, the tender that resulted in the hiring of Construservice has signs of irregularities.
In a statement, Juscelino Filho said he was “the most interested” in resolving the case, and reiterated that the road does serve hundreds of residents of Vitorino Freire. The minister also says that his role as a parliamentarian is to present amendments, but not to execute and supervise the works that will be carried out with the resources.
“Juscelino Filho is the most interested in this case being clarified. His conduct has always been guided by ethics, social responsibility and adequate use of public resources to improve the living conditions of the poorest population”, he says. “As a deputy, your role is to allocate parliamentary amendments that benefit the people who need it most, a legitimate instrument of the National Congress. The execution and supervision of works is not the responsibility of the parliamentarian”, continues the text.
“The road in question connects 11 villages, where hundreds of people suffer, daily, with great challenges in getting to work, schools, hospitals and health centers, especially during rainy periods, when the road becomes impassable, isolating this population. Therefore, above all, it is an asset of the people of Vitorino Freire; its paving is an old demand of the population”, says the minister.
