The Secretary of Agriculture of São Paulo, Guilherme Piai, said this Monday (20) that the testimonies collected by the MP-SP (Public Ministry of São Paulo) that list actions carried out by his department came from people fired for being “incompetent” and denied that he had tried to hinder the investigations.
The MP-SP opened 147 investigations, which have already resulted in the presentation of 12 civil actions for violations of the Anti-Corruption Law, for payments made in the last week of 2022 to companies contracted for conservation and maintenance works on dirt roads in rural areas of São Paulo. All employees who were involved in the beginning of the investigations were dismissed from the secretariat and, to the prosecutors, they reported that the dismissals were caused by the discovery of irregularities.
Governor Tarcísio himself ordered one of the dismissals, according to what the former executive secretary of Agriculture, Marcos Rogério Böttcher, reported to prosecutors.
This Monday, Piai, Tarcísio and former secretary Itamar Borges (MDB), now a state deputy, were at an event focused on the sugar cane market, at the Grand Hyatt hotel, in the south of the capital.
The governor did not want to give an interview, but Piai spoke to the Sheet at the end of a lecture. When commenting on the investigations, he stated that part of the investigations had been archived. Later, his press office corrected the information, saying that there were requests for archiving by some of the prosecutors investigating the case. However, the MP-SP chose to continue with the investigations.
HAS Sheetprosecutor Ricardo de Barros Leonel, who presented 13 lawsuits pending in court, highlighted that he chose to maintain the cases because Caex (the technical analysis body of the MP-SP that is not linked to the prosecutor’s offices) pointed out that the payments made by Agriculture were irregular, as the dismissed employees said. The report tried to hear them, given Piai’s accusations, but received no response.
The employees who found irregularities in Agriculture were sent away from the government and reported actions taken by their management to stop the investigations. These dismissals that Mr. did they have anything to do with the investigation?
Absolutely no relationship. Whoever is saying this is because they have not accepted the fact that they have not delivered any results, and our management is surprising São Paulo’s agricultural sector. At no point did I work to stop anything. On the contrary. I checked internally. A team was formed with public servants to investigate everything that was done and immediately sent to the Public Ministry and the State Attorney General’s Office. All information is provided immediately.
Everything that was reported was from the previous management. Our management, our rural roads program, does not have any appointments from the court of auditors. It is true excellence, with praise from everyone. Who am I to block an investigation by the Public Ministry? I think the Public Ministry has to continue investigating. When they request information from us, it is sent immediately.
The State Comptroller General’s report approving the rebalancing, the calculation of the rebalancing, has now come out. Due to the pandemic, the price of diesel has risen a lot [o governo argumenta que um dos fatores que encareceu as obras foi o aumento dos combustíveis em 2022, o que o MP-SP contesta]. I’m not a technician on the subject, but everything the Controller’s Office asked for, I’ve already met with the team, we’re going to follow through. Sanction companies that need to be sanctioned, provide additional information on the rebalancing calculations. It makes me sad to see people who were sent away because they are incompetent try to connect me to something that was done in 2022, when I didn’t even have a public position.
The actions on the case in the MP-SP are based on its own opinion, made by Caex, which pointed out the irregularities. Why Mr. Do you think the conclusions of the secretariat and the MP-SP are so different?
Some prosecutors have already closed some cases. When I received this report from the Prosecutor’s Office, because it was there without a hearing, without listening to anyone, without a signature, something done hastily to try to harm someone. We formed a team of ten employees, it took months of listening, there are thousands of pages. I can’t go against a report from a team I put together to do this. I just accepted what I received from these employees, serious people, credible people, people who don’t have a case, people who aren’t investigated, and I immediately sent it to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Now, a prosecutor decided to create a new case, another prosecutor filed it. This is the work of the Public Ministry and I am contributing to it.
Did the governor somehow ask you to fire someone?
Not at all. The governor never interfered. The governor is a technician. He nominated me for the work I did at Itesp [Instituto de Terras de São Paulo]. He had sent the executive secretary away [Böttcher] because he was incompetent, who didn’t deliver anything. And he created this narrative that the governor sent him away because he reported it. It’s a lie and I prove it. And the governor never interfered. So much so that he turned to me and said: “Piai, you have autonomy, you don’t need to give in to political pressure, you have to deliver results for São Paulo’s agriculture.”
X-RAY | Guilherme Piai, 35
Secretary of Agriculture and Supply of São Paulo. He was deputy secretary of the same department and president of Itesp (São Paulo Land Institute).
