The MP-SP (Public Ministry of ) states that the São Paulo government made irregular payments in 147 contracts from the Department of Agriculture at the end of 2022, under the Rodrigo Garcia administration (at the time of the PSDB), and collected reports that the management (Republicans) acted to contain the investigations.
According to statements collected by the Public Heritage Prosecutor’s Office in the capital, the Secretary of Agriculture, Guilherme Piai, removed the employees who reported the irregularities, archived internal investigation processes and promoted assistants who prepared opinions used to suspend the investigation, which was closed at the administrative level.
One of the witnesses, former executive secretary Marcos Renato Böttcher, told prosecutors that he personally warned Tarcísio of the irregularities. In testimony, he stated that he had heard the following phrase from the governor at the time: “I’m going to give you some advice: formalize everything and forward it to external control bodies.” Böttcher was fired weeks later.
In a note, the São Paulo government said that the dismissals were due to technical decisions, that there is no tolerance for deviations and that Tarcísio ordered the immediate investigation of the complaints.
The investigation has already resulted in the filing of nine lawsuits alleging violations of the Anti-Corruption Law, against eight companies and two Agriculture employees. Former secretary of the department Francisco Matturro responds to the inquiry.
This Friday (17) report showed documents about Piai’s actions to close the internal investigation.
He and Tarcísio have jurisdictional prerogative and cannot be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office. This is the responsibility of the Attorney General of Justice, Paulo Sérgio de Oliveira e Costa. In a statement, the MP-SP press office stated that “there is no ongoing investigation within the scope of the Attorney General’s Office.”
The works under suspicion are part of the Melhor Caminho program, launched in 2021 by then secretary Itamar Borges (MDB), now state deputy. The program provided for the conservation of dirt roads, vital for the flow of the state’s agricultural production, and had a budget of around R$400 million in 2022.
At the end of that year, after Itamar left office to contest the elections, the secretariat was taken over by Francisco Matturro, who was his executive secretary. It was under Matturro’s command that additional payments to contractors were authorized under the argument of economic-financial rebalancing of contracts. The additives totaled R$50 million, according to the MP-SP.
When he took office in January 2023, Tarcísio appointed rural producer Antonio Junqueira to head Agriculture. Junqueira called Böttcher, a career civil servant at the TCE (State Audit Court), to be his executive secretary. A few months later, after complaints from mayors about delays and poor quality of work, .
The survey, conducted by chief of staff José Carlos Pagliuca and Rural Logistics coordinator Emílio Nicanor Galan Francês, concluded that the additives had been granted wholesale, without individual analysis, and considered the justifications for the financial imbalance weak. Unfinished works classified as completed were also identified.
“In fact, it wasn’t the companies that asked for the rebalancing, it was the secretariat, through the rural logistics coordinator, that distributed a document”, said Francês in a statement to the MP-SP obtained by Sheet. “It was the first time I saw the tail wag on the horse”, he joked.
Junqueira took the case to Tarcísio. According to statements collected by the MP-SP, the governor instructed that the material be forwarded to the control bodies — the MP-SP, the TCE (State Audit Court) and the CGE (State Comptroller General) received the letter in June 2023.
The decision, however, generated political discomfort, with discomfort from allies of the MDB, which commanded the department in the previous administration. Later, Junqueira informed Böttcher that he would be replaced.
“He [Junqueira] he was totally uncomfortable and said that he had received a call from the governor to indicate another name”, the former executive secretary told prosecutors. When he spoke about the case to the MP-SP, Francês also stated that the decision came from “the Palace”, in reference to the Palácio dos Bandeirantes.
Piai took over as secretary replacing Böttcher and, with Junqueira away for health reasons, dismissed Pagliuca and Francês, employees who had conducted the investigation. Upon returning from leave, Junqueira resigned, citing personal reasons. He was contacted, but did not want to give an interview.
During Piai’s management, the secretariat produced a new technical opinion, which validated the amendments, and communicated to the MP-SP in June 2024 that the case had been archived. The committee responsible for the opinion was chaired by Hamilton Amorim, then a technical advisor who was promoted to executive secretary this year.
The secretary also reinstated the civil servant Ricardo Lorenzini, chief of staff at the time of the payments and appointed by the MP-SP as one of those responsible for releasing the resources, to the top of the department.
Lorenzini is currently the secretariat’s management undersecretary and has assets blocked at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office. The reporter tried to look for him, without success. In a statement given in December 2023 to the MP-SP, he denied that the rebalancing additives had been granted without prior analysis and argued that the extra payments were correct.
The government said that there was an impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, the rise in fuel prices and the War in Ukraine to make the works more expensive in 2022. The MP-SP argued that the first two factors were before the contracts were signed and that the war had no proven correlation with the readjustments.
The Secretariat of Agriculture informed, in a note, that it “follows the investigations carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office and remains at the disposal of the authorities to provide full collaboration”.
A Sheet sent an email to the governor’s communication questioning whether he asked to dismiss Agriculture employees who investigated the irregularities and what the CGE’s conclusions were on the matter — at the TCE, the case is still ongoing.
The note sent stated that “any suspected irregularity identified is treated and investigated with absolute rigor.”
“At the time of the aforementioned facts, Governor Tarcísio de Freitas ordered the immediate investigation of the allegations and the sending of all documentation to the competent bodies,” said the text, adding that the investigation conducted by the secretariat was forwarded to the MP-SP.
“In relation to the movements of civil servants, they result solely from technical and administrative decisions”, follows the note, which made the government “available to the authorities for all necessary clarifications”.
Through his lawyer, Fernando José da Costa, former secretary Matturro informed that “the economic-financial rebalancing granted to contracts signed with executing companies proved necessary for the continuity of services, considering the impacts resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and war in Ukraine, having been guided by the law, technical analysis and legal opinions”.
The advice of former governor Rodrigo Garcia was sought, but has not yet responded.
