The minister requested a review and suspended, in August, what could impeach the governor of Roraima. In March, the institute founded by the minister received R$273,000 from the state government, in a contract without bidding. The case was revealed by the newspaper O Globo and confirmed by UOL.
Governor Antônio Denarium (PP) and appealed to the (Superior Electoral Court). The reason for the impeachment was abuse of political and economic power during the 2022 elections, when Denarium was re-elected. There were four revocations at the state level, the last two in January and November 2024.
In August, Minister Isabel Galloti, rapporteur of the case at the TSE, voted for immediate revocation; on the same day, Mendonça requested a review and suspended the trial. The request for a view, made on August 26, was valid for 30 days. At the end of September, Mendonça renewed the request for a view for another 30 days. The TSE did not inform UOL when the trial will resume.
Mendonça is the founder of Iter, which was hired by the government of Denarium, in February, to teach two courses for state employees. That month, Denarium had already filed appeals with the TSE against his revocation. Mendonça was already a TSE minister — he has been at the court since June 2024.
In March, the government of Roraima paid R$273,000 for the two courses, which lasted a total of six days — from February 19th to 26th. This amounts to R$45,500 per day of course. 40 places were offered for each of the training courses.
The hiring took place without bidding; one of the courses was precisely about how to place bids; the contract was signed by the Bidding and Contracting Secretariat. The government of Roraima waived the bid under the allegation of “unenforceability”.
In December, the Tender Secretariat sent an email to Iter requesting a price proposal; 21-page budget was sent four hours later. In addition to the detailed budget, Iter sent two certificates of technical capacity and four invoices for courses offered by other public and private institutions.
Iter’s proposal features the photo and biography of Mendonça, presented as “founder”. The president of Iter is Victor Godoy, former Minister of Education under Jair Bolsonaro. Mendonça was Bolsonaro’s Minister of Justice before being appointed to the .
Mendonça also signed the diplomas of the course students. “Prof. Dr. André Mendonça, Founder”. The second signature on the diploma is “Victor Godoy, CEO”. “Completed the course on the New Law on Tenders and Administrative Contracts — class in company Roraima with a 24-hour workload, from February 24 to 26, 2025.”
Iter became a closed corporation in October, not allowing anyone to know who its current partners are; Until then, a company from Mendonça was a partner of the institute. The other partners were Victor Godoy; Rodrigo Sorrenti, Mendonça’s chief of staff at the STF; Tercio Tokano, Union lawyer and professor at Mackenzie; and economist Danilo Dupas, who was president of Inep during Bolsonaro’s administration.
When contacted, Mendonça did not respond. UOL contacted the minister’s office and the advisors of the TSE of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). The text will be updated if there is a response.
The governor of Roraima also did not respond to the report. He was elected governor for the first time in 2018, as a representative of the Bolsonarista wave. Despite his impeachment at the regional electoral court, he is in the penultimate year of his second term.
The Roraima Court of Auditors also hired Iter to give public speaking courses to three counselors, at a price of R$54,000. The commitment notes were issued from March to July this year. UOL questioned the court about this. The text will be updated if there is a response.
Governor simulated public calamity, says minister
At the TSE, minister Isabel Galloti highlighted Denarium’s electoral spending in an election year with the “Family Basket” and “Morar Melhor” programs. For her, “Morar Melhor” got around the ban on starting social projects in election years. “An ingenious expedient, which culminated in the creation of new programs in an election year with electoral dividends in favor of the candidate re-elected to the state government”, said Gallotti.
Roraima government expenses rose more than 42 times between 2021 and 2022, according to data evaluated by the TSE. The calculation already discounts the amounts received from the federal government. A false public calamity would have been used as “subterfuge”. “The supposed situation of public calamity was used as a subterfuge for the massive irregular transfer of resources for the purpose of electoral benefits”, stated the minister.
Denarium’s campaign spending still exceeded the legal limit by 25 times. The lawsuit was filed by an opponent of Denarium in the 2022 elections.
In the process, Denarium’s defense denies irregularities in the social programs and said that they were not electoral in nature. The transfer of money from the state government to city halls would also be legal.
