An NGO with a brief history of operations in Anápolis (GO) received more than R$90 million in 26 of the last three years for actions ranging from electronic game competitions in ten states to controlling zoonoses in Acre.
In gaming actions, the entity’s biggest focus with the use of amendments, a large part of the resources received are attributed to computer rentals with a value equivalent to 11 times the purchase price, according to official documents obtained by Sheet. The NGO still uses around 40% of the money from amendments at opening or closing parties.
The Moriá Association is led by military personnel and former members of the (PL). It is among the 10 NGOs (Comptroller General of the Union).
The control body forwarded details to the (Federal Supreme Court) about these organizations after Minister Flávio Dino ordered a fine-toothed comb on amendment expenses. Regarding Moriá, it identified “avoidable” expenses of R$1.7 million in just two of these agreements. The Comptroller also points out “absence of critical analysis” in the approval of budgets by the federal government.
Moriá denies any type of irregularity. “The programs carried out by the entity met all the stages established by the federal Executive, respecting all contracted requirements, criteria and standards”, stated the NGO in a statement.
In the 2024 Budget, the entity received amendments to take the “Digital Student Games (Jedis)” to Goiás, Alagoas, Amazonas, Rondônia, Bahia, Minas and the Federal District. The objective is to teach online games such as Valorant, LOL, eFootball and Free Fire in schools. The DF bench in the Chamber alone allocated R$37 million.
One of the projects being carried out, the Brasília Digital Student Games, foresees in the work plan the service of 300 young people in 10 centers (3,000 people). But the hiring of courses, t-shirts, medals and other items is for 5,000, according to the work plan accessed by Sheet on a government transparency platform.
This plan was approved by the Ministry of Sports, from whose budget the amendment came from. The department did not respond to questions from the Sheet.
“there is no standard and there is also no clear criteria on the part of the federal manager for approval and analysis of work plans, even when dealing with identical items”.
“This demonstrates subjectivity and lack of critical analysis by the manager (supervision) in approving the budgets sent by the proponents. This is associated with the risk of overpricing in the acquisition of goods and services”, says the body.
The NGO was created in 2017 by pastor Marcos Araújo and his wife Elida. Until 2022, the entity’s history with public policies was restricted to a Christmas event in Anápolis and two agreements, worth R$40 thousand, with the local city hall.
In 2022, it received an amendment of R$4 million from deputy Pedro Augusto (PP-RJ) to organize the games in ten centers in Rio. Upon signing the funding term, in the last week of the Bolsonaro government, the organization changed hands : it was already chaired by Gustavo Henrique Fonseca de Deus.
A former military officer, Fonseca de Deus worked in the area of Sports project management at the then Ministry of Citizenship, as an outsourced employee. Retired captain José Ferreira de Barros, his colleague in the Navy, and Daniel Raomaniuk Pinheiro Lima, who headed the legal department of the Ministry of Health during the administration (PP) after working for the wife of the now federal deputy, later arrived at the NGO.
Ferreira de Barros and Pinheiro Lima are, respectively, vice-president and administrative director of the NGO.
With new management and an address in Brasília, Moriá was one of the NGOs that received the most amendments in the 2024 Budget, with 13 linked to five ministries.
One of the projects currently underway, in Brasília, foresees the rental of 62 computers for Jedis-DF at a cost of R$2.2 million for a period of ten months. The total value is equivalent to R$35 thousand per unit.
A similar computer (with a 5th generation processor and 24-inch screen) costs less than R$3,000 on the Amazon shopping website. CGU, for example, identified an average cost of R$4,500 to purchase the machines.
The Jedis-DF project approved by the Ministry of Sports also includes other furniture items such as gaming chairs (R$940 per month) and 43-inch TVs (R$1,800 per month), provided by the same company that rented a popular car for R$50 thousand per year, without mentioning the model or conditions.
The contract provides for the payment of 15 days of rental for each piece (R$900 in the case of a TV) for the company to transport it from one school to another and install it.
The NGO says, in a note, that leasing is “always more advantageous” than purchasing. “The prices contracted by Moriá for the rental also include assembly, disassembly, chartering and configuration of the machines — a very high cost,” said the note.
The projects were approved by the Ministry of Sports, which is now analyzing the work plans and judging the accountability of the first Jedis, in Rio. The ministry imposed secrecy on the documents.
Based on seven amendments by the now former deputy Perpétua Almeida (PC do B), Moriá expanded its area of activity in 2023, signing an agreement worth R$ 6.7 million with to monitor and control arbovirus vectors, such as that of dengue, in the cities of Rio Branco and Cruzeiro do Sul, in Acre.
Perpétua did not respond to Sheet.
Asked about how it proved its technical capacity to act in the fight against dengue, Moriá said that “it has experienced and renowned collaborators, who are included in the work plan” and mentioned that the person technically responsible for the project is a biologist with experience in the area.
