Trips under the Caixa Mais Brasil program carried out by the former president of the public bank Pedro Guimarães included expenses with renting armored cars and accommodation in luxury resorts at a total cost of R$9.4 million until March this year.
The data were obtained by Sheet via LAI (Access to Information Law) and reveal an average cost of R$ 70 thousand for each one. The events were held on weekends and there would have been several cases of sexual harassment revealed by the Metrópoles portal.
In the 134 editions of Caixa Mais Brasil, in addition to enjoying the comfort of resorts in Natal and Porto Seguro, for example, the then president of the institution received a daily allowance of US$ 77 per day.
Considering an average of three days per event —the former president used to go on Friday and return on Sunday — this represented an extra gain of approximately R$165,000. The amount was paid in full, as lodging and food expenses were borne by Caixa.
Asked about Pedro Guimarães’ travel expenses, Caixa said that “there are internal investigations in progress, in parallel with those being carried out by the control bodies”.
“In addition to these, the Board of Directors determined the hiring of an external, independent company to verify all cases”, he added.
The institution also said that “the Bank’s Whistleblower Channel is managed by an external entity, which is responsible for preserving the identity of whistleblowers”.
Through his lawyer, José Oliveira Lima, the former president stated that “all costs of events related to Caixa Mais Brasil followed the bank’s protocols and rules”. In Pedro Guimarães’ view, the expenditures with the program “can be considered as investments, as it produced benefits for the population and generated savings for the bank many times greater than what was spent”.
According to reports obtained by Sheet of people who participated in the organization of the events, the treatment given to the then president of Caixa was similar to that of the president of the Republic.
The production team was not authorized to speak with Pedro Guimarães and could only address him if approached by him. According to these people, it was even forbidden to laugh louder than Guimarães during the events.
Through his attorney, he denies the existence of these guidelines.
Upon assuming the presidency of Caixa, Pedro Guimarães established an intense travel schedule, the main highlight of which was the Caixa Mais Brasil program. The events aimed to bring the bank’s top management closer to the institution’s employees throughout Brazil and also to Caixa’s customers.
In practice, this meant a weekend trip, whenever possible, to all regions of the country.
At first, the organization of the trips was in charge of Pedro Guimarães’ office, but the workload soon proved excessive for the team.
Therefore, it was necessary to create a specific group for this function within the National Superintendence of Institutional Relations.
Known as GT Caixa Mais Brasil, this group worked until last year after the TCU (Union Court of Auditors) opened a process to investigate expenditures in Caixa Mais Brasil. The case was eventually dropped in court.
On trips, the use of armored car was customary. There are records of armored vehicle rental for a Caixa Mais Brasil activity in Roraima and Manaus, both in January 2019. This occurred even before the threat suffered by Guimarães in July 2020.
According to data obtained via LAI, the most expensive trip for Pedro Guimarães was to Breves (PA), on Ilha do Marajó. BRL 250 thousand were spent, and the event was attended by Jair Bolsonaro — October 2020.
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