The MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in the Federal District asked Caixa Econômica for information about the works that the bank paid for in the house of former president Pedro Guimarães.
THE Sheet revealed on Tuesday (5) that the financial institution paid R$ 50,000 to install 11 light poles in the mansion rented by Guimarães in Lago Sul, an upscale neighborhood in the federal capital.
Guimarães’ lawyer, José Luís Oliveira Lima, said that the works were authorized by Caixa’s security department.
According to the bank, the improvements followed internal rules and were necessary after Guimarães and his family were threatened in July 2020. They were carried out soon after, on the 21st of that month.
The request for information was sent by the MPF to the new president of the bank, Daniella Marques, and gives her 15 working days for her to provide clarification on the reported fact.
Prosecutor João Gabriel Morais de Queiroz asks the public bank to “point out the possible normative acts of Caixa that authorize expenses of this nature” and forward “a full copy of any administrative procedures instituted to assess the security risks at the residence of the then president of Caixa” .
The report questioned Caixa about the regulations that underpinned the execution of the works, but received no response.
The MPF also requests the “full copy of any administrative procedures related to the installation of poles or the performance of any other improvement in said property paid for by said institution, with the respective projects, budgets and rendering of accounts”.
This is not the first procedure initiated after the revelation of the Sheet. The Public Ministry with the TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union) filed a representation in the control body asking the court to investigate the works.
According to Lucas Furtado, the TCU attorney who signs the request, the case needs to be examined by the court’s external control so that it can be ascertained whether the work had legitimate reasons to exist in the public interest “or if it served to meet the legal excuses- very personal and private interest”.
The works on the house in Guimarães were authorized by the then executive director of Logistics and Security at Caixa, Simone Benevides de Pinho Lima. In a messaging application conversation to which the Sheet had access, she authorizes the displacement of the employees of EMIBM, the company responsible for the work, to carry out the work at the house in Guimarães.
EMIBM has had contracts for engineering services with Caixa for about 25 years, obtained through public tenders, the company said. It was in one of these contracts that the work on Guimarães’ house was included.
The last contract, from June 2020, has an estimated value of BRL 16.3 million. Of this total, R$ 4.9 million has already been executed.
The person responsible for the improvement at the service of EMIBM was Elizário Filho. in conversation with the Sheet, he said that, unless I’m mistaken, 11 posts were installed. “There used to be a fence, they removed the fence and it was open to the lake. EMIBM hired me, we provide services for him. For me, nothing with Caixa. I didn’t even know it was from Caixa”, he said.
Another employee of the work, the electrician Francisco Adriano, confirmed that it was an improvement of Caixa.
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