The NGO Transparência Brasil detected possible fraud in 248 purchases and contracting of services made by the federal government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) within the scope of the covid-19 pandemic. In total, possible irregularities affect contracts worth around BRL 2 billion signed between February 2020 and October 2022.
One of the atypical purchases found was the R$ 406,000 contract, dated April 2020, whereby the University Hospital of Brasília purchased 140,000 disposable surgical masks from the company QMIDIA COMUNICACAO LTDA, but whose registered activity is “installation of advertising panels” .
“It is also noteworthy the supplier’s ability to provide a product totally unrelated to its economic activity in significant quantities, even just over two months after the establishment of the Public Health Emergency of National Importance (ESPIN) due to COVID-19. 19″, says the report produced with data from the Tá de Pé system, from the NGO Transparência Brasil.
Among the contracts, the federal government signed 2,912 of them with suppliers registered in the Register of Disreputable and Suspended Companies (CEIS). One of these suppliers closed 215 emergency contracts with the Bolsonaro government, for example.
“Hiring like this is legal, according to a rule that relaxed the criteria for emergency purchases related to the pandemic. Even so, they offer a high risk of problems, as the presence of a company in the CEIS shows that it has a history of contractual or legal violation in another service provision for the public administration”, says the report.
The document also analyzed contracts with suspicious billing companies. According to the legislation, micro and small companies have an annual billing limit, which allows the State to measure the value of each company’s financial activity. If billing changes, those responsible must change the company’s typification, otherwise they enter the list of suspicious billing companies.
The federal government signed 12,294 contracts with 296 companies included in this list. The report highlights some of these contracts. One of them was made with the supplier NSA DISTRIBUIDORA DE MEDICAMENTOS LTDA, which was registered as a micro-enterprise in 2022. This means that its billing limit is BRL 360,000. The company, however, signed contracts worth R$441,000, R$7.5 million and R$7.2 million in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Finally, 10 agreements signed with nine companies open 30 days or less before signing the contract were also analyzed. MG35 ATACADO DA SAUDE LTDA, for example, closed a contract with the federal government three weeks after its opening.
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
