Secretary Rodrigo Goulart, who took over the Economic Development and Labor portfolio of the capital of São Paulo last week, is a partner in a company that has debts of R$179,000 with the city of São Paulo.
Re-elected councilor in 2024, he took office on the 1st to command the secretariat in the second term of mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB).
Goulart is one of five partners in the company Grou, owner of the restaurant “Consulado da Bahia”, located in Pinheiros, west of the capital. The establishment was fined seven times between 2019 and 2023 for irregular use of sidewalks. On six occasions, the Court was called to pay the debts. The information was initially released by the portal Metropolises and confirmed by Estadão.
In addition to Grou, the secretary is one of four partners in “Cachaçaria Goulart Comércio de Bebidas LTDA”, which belongs to his family. The company has outstanding debts with the city council resulting from traffic fines totaling R$252.73.
Rodrigo Goulart, in a statement, stated that “he was not aware of the fine and had already taken steps to pay the amounts”. The Municipal Attorney General’s Office, responsible for managing the public sector’s debt, stated that “the press does not deal with taxpayer information protected by tax secrecy”.
Goulart has been a São Paulo councilor since 2017 for the PSD – a party that was part of Nunes’ coalition in the 2024 election. He was re-elected in the last election and is on leave while heading the Secretariat of Economic Development and Labor.
