The year started with great news. The mayor of Rio, , attacked the city’s public transport cartel: “We are facing a group that is a mafia […]. Mafiosi have been running this black box for a long time in Rio. They won’t stop us. Let’s give transparency to this system and pay a fair price.”
At the root of the mayor’s anger is his attempt to integrate transportation with a new . , Paes knows by heart the operations of what he now, fortunately, calls the mafia.
Revisiting the exploits of this cartel is a tour of the ruin of the city’s politics and public services.
In 2004, the mayor instituted the Bilhete Único in São Paulo. It bothered companies and transport companies that defended their interests. In Rio, it was assumed that innovation was something from another galaxy. It was only in 2007 that Fetranspor, the soul of the cartel, created a wind pastry called RioCard Expresso, with no discount.
Rio only introduced the Bilhete Único in 2010. It cost more than the one in São Paulo and was less useful. The Legislative Assembly created a CPI to open Fetranspor’s black box. It ended up in CPIzza.
Governors, mayors and transport companies encouraged the population with BRTs and promises, while everything remained the same in the cartel’s domains.
In 2017, the Federal Police entered the circuit and arrested a part of what Eduardo Paes now calls the mafia. The businessman and his grand vizier Lélis Marcos Teixeira, president of Fetranspor, were arrested.
This resulted in the exposure of a network of bribes that went from the governors’ offices and the Assembly, through the Department of Transport and the Court of Auditors.
Magnificent Cabral would have received R$144.7 million from Fetranspor from 2010 to 2016. The investigation reached Rodrigo Bethlem, former special secretary for Public Order of Mayor Eduardo Paes.
It is worth remembering an excerpt from the Public Ministry’s report, from November 2017, referring to Jorge Picciani and Paulo Melo, former presidents of the Assembly: “These spreadsheets tell us that, in the period from July 15, 2010 to July 14, July 2015, R$58.6 million were paid from Fetranspor’s account to Picciani and R$54.3 million to Paulo Melo.
Corporate money has a rare virtue, as it leaves no trace. The citizen pays his ticket, the company collects it, bags the bills and sends them to his friend. All far from the sight of Coaf or the Central Bank.
All these accusations could be the result of irresponsible journalists, vengeful prosecutors or evil politicians.
Reporters Aguirre Talento and Luiz Ernesto Magalhães revealed that, with the authority of the former president of Fetranspor, Lélis provided collaboration that resulted in 25 attachments. It detonated businessmen, politicians, civil servants and magistrates. According to him, in ten years the cartel distributed R$120 million to at least 30 fortunate authorities. Secretaries received allowances of up to R$200,000.
According to Lélis, Fetranspor invested R$40 million in Eduardo Paes’ 2012 campaign. He responded by stating that all his campaign accounts were approved by the Electoral Court and regretted having to respond to accusations without knowing their content.
A super audit for transport
A new ticketing system for Rio’s transport could end decades of dominance by what Mayor Eduardo Paes called the mafia. Under the current system, bus companies receive public subsidies based on vague passenger transport reports. This system has been known as a “black box” for decades.
It was proven to be a jabaculês factory. Reading what is known is discouraging.
Journalist Franklin Martins uploaded the lundu song “We are in the Century of Lights”, from 1857, when it was sung in Rio:
“Transport is immense,
Whether by land or by sea.
[…]
Today everything is progress
From the famous patron saint”.
Born in 1955, Fetranspor resisted governors, mayors (including three terms of Eduardo Paes), CPIzzas, court decisions and countless police operations. The result of this dominance can be evaluated every day on the streets of Rio.
Fetranspor is one of the summits of a corrupt system, but it is not its base. The adoption of a new ticketing system depends on many factors, including coordination with the state government, where the doctor is located.
The country is experiencing a situation similar to that of New York at the end of the 19th century. There, businessmen and judges worked together against the famous thief and achieved some results.
Knowing the past, Mayor Eduardo Paes could appoint a commission made up of businesspeople and engineers with no ties to the government to evaluate Rio’s public transport contracts.
She would examine the current agreements and those already signed, as well as the spreadsheets of Riocard, Fetranspor’s voracious offspring. The commission could be chaired by a former minister of the Supreme Court.
In a few weeks, this commission would close the holes through which the mafia has crawled and also those through which it could crawl back.
Galleon
There were days when passengers on international flights spent more than an hour waiting in the check-in and passport check lines.
There are many airports where you have to worry about disembarking. Grating to board is jabuticaba.
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