Two auditors from the TCE (State Audit Court) told the MP-SP (Public Ministry of ) that they suffered internal pressure to ignore flaws in the management of highways by the (Republican) and (non-party) administrations.
According to them, interference from superiors led to the production of audits that ignored problems in the road sector and resulted in reports that allowed the government to sign concessions for values below what the roads were actually worth, causing billions in losses to the state.
The civil servants claim that the pressure on the reports triggered persecution within the court. In statements to the MP-SP and the Civil Police, in a confidential investigation, they reported moral harassment and, in the case of one of them, sexual harassment. The two were removed from the areas in which they worked and say they lost career progression because they were no longer evaluated by their managers.
The TCE told the Sheet that it is committed to ethics and that one of the complaints, that of sexual harassment, was investigated and archived. The Tarcísio administration stated that “possible conclusions about the interference of third parties” in the work of the TCE “are absolutely mistaken and undue”.
The court is made up of seven counselors, chosen by the governor and Alesp (Legislative Assembly of São Paulo). Since 2023, , forming the majority of the plenary responsible for judging government accounts and validating technical reports produced by auditors.
The cases cited by the employees involve the analysis of the 2023 accounts of the DER (Department of Highways), directed by Sérgio Codelo, a retired Army colonel linked to Tarcísio, and the inspection of the 2022 accounts of Artesp, under the Rodrigo Garcia administration. In both cases, according to the auditors, relevant sections of the reports were removed during the internal review stage.
In the case of DER, the auditors state that findings regarding poor asset management were suppressed, including inadequate registration of reversible assets (equipment and structures that must return to the public authorities at the end of the concessions), return of highways in precarious condition and failures resulting from poorly executed works.
On another front, of yards and auctions, the audit had highlighted the disappearance of 47 vehicles, cartelization between seven yard dealerships with common partners and links with offshore companies in Panama. According to the servers, these elements were cut from the final version.
“The audit highlighted structural flaws in the management of DER that generate severe impacts on the state budget, the quality of highways and the well-being of the population. All of this was simply cut”, states an excerpt from one of the representations.
At Artesp, according to the civil servants, findings of high lack of execution of works and signs that the agency was acting in favor of the concessionaires were removed. They say that an employee of the consortium that won a bid participated in the preparation of the notice, which would constitute a conflict of interest. Notes on restrictive clauses that limited competition were also removed.
The omission, according to one of the representations, reduced the credit favorable to the state in the rebalancing calculations —adjustments made when there are changes in the costs or revenues of concessions—, generating an impact of R$7.5 billion.
The agency told the Sheet that the employees involved in the reported cases of conflict of interest were dismissed.
“Since 2024, Artesp has undergone an administrative and functional restructuring, with the creation of internal control bodies and the Agency’s first Internal Affairs Department, responsible for internal auditing, preventing irregularities and coordinating responses to the Court of Auditors and the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” he said.
“All questions raised by the TCE and the MP were duly addressed and resolved. To rebuild its institutional capacity and reduce the historical dependence on outsourcing, the State Government authorized the holding of Artesp’s first public tender in more than a decade”, said the agency, highlighting that the problems highlighted referred to the previous management.
In the reports sent to the MP-SP, one of the auditors says she was called “weak, incompetent and unbearable”, in addition to receiving tasks with deadlines considered impossible and requests to sign audits that she did not carry out. The other claims to have been the target of sexual harassment, with comments about her body and promises of professional favors in exchange for sexual relations.
The two filed popular lawsuits against the TCE, presented representations to the MP-SP and gave a statement to the Civil Police. The court failed to complete the civil servants’ performance evaluations, which resulted in the non-payment of salary progressions. When contacted, they did not want to be interviewed and asked to have their names preserved.
In a note, in addition to saying that the accusation of sexual harassment was investigated and archived due to lack of materiality, the TCE told the Sheet that there was no reprisal and that the evaluations were not carried out because the managers began to appear as defendants in the actions brought by the auditors, which would have prevented them from evaluating them.
He also said that, in the area to which they were transferred, there was no time to analyze performance. The court informed that it will comply with the court decision that determined the evaluation for progression, although it has filed an appeal.
In addition to calling possible conclusions about third-party interference in the work of the TCE erroneous, the Tarcísio management said it had delivered all the requested documentation about the DER, stated that the accounts were approved and declared that it repudiated any harassment practices.
Rodrigo Garcia was contacted, but did not comment on the case.
