Apex extends business class flights to employees and guests

Apex (Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments) followed the example of the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) and expanded the possibility of business class flights on international trips carried out by employees and guests.

Among the guests of the foreign trade promotion agency are representatives of productive sectors in Brazil and abroad, in addition to congressmen.

Before, the benefit was restricted to members of the executive board and the deliberative and fiscal councils. It included, in some cases, those who accompanied them.

The agency is a non-profit legal entity governed by private law. Linked to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it has estimated total revenue of R$1.4 billion in 2022 and is subject to political influence.

The agency receives resources, both public and private, through management contracts. The agency is supervised by the TCU (Union Court of Auditors) and currently has 370 employees, including directors.

wanted by leafthe Apex stated that the “review of internal corporate travel regulations is a common administrative procedure, carried out on a regular basis”.

The change in the purchase of air tickets serves mainly missions to Dubai, currently the main destination for commercial promoters.

According to figures from the Apex, the city of the United Arab Emirates concentrated more than half of the trips abroad in 2021, mainly due to the Dubai Expo. The forecast is that the flow of trips to the place still due to the event will continue strong in the first half of this year.

A spreadsheet made available by the agency shows that last year international travel cost R$ 7.4 million with daily rates, accommodation and tickets. Air tickets accounted for 28% (R$ 2.1 million) of the expense. The new rules will have a financial impact.

On January 12, Bolsonaro issued a decree authorizing the government to buy business-class tickets during official missions on international flights for ministers of state and those holding senior positions. The authorization is valid for sections longer than seven hours.

Two days later, it was Apex’s turn to publish a normative instruction to update its rules on issuing air tickets and paying per diems, which were readjusted, including in foreign currency.

Agency directors already enjoyed the benefit of traveling in the most expensive area of ​​the planes, regardless of the duration of the flights.

The changes made give managers and guests of the Executive Board the right to travel in business class on flights lasting more than seven hours, excluding stopovers and connections.

Employees and guests of the managements now have the benefit on trips longer than 14 hours, excluding stopovers and connections. From São Paulo, for example, the nonstop flight to Dubai falls into the category.

Another innovation that includes the same group is for flights lasting between 7 and 14 hours. Business class is not available, but special seats can be purchased and the agency will refund up to 50% of the original fare. Before, the rule was valid for trips longer than 12 hours.

The disclosure of information about corporate travel within the scope of the Apex is recent. A joint ordinance from the Ministry of Economy and TCU of February 2021 made the disclosure of data mandatory.

A single spreadsheet on the topic was made available for consultation. It includes information about the last 12 months.

Among the more than 400 displacements cataloged, the names of congressmen appear, some more than once – in the case of the leader of the Republicans in the Chamber, Hugo Motta (PB), and the Bolsonar deputy Aline Sleutjes (PSL-PR).

The survey indicates that Motta was invited to travel to Berlin (Germany) and Houston (United States), in a total of R$ 58 thousand in expenses for the Apex.

In the case of Sleutjes, the records show trips to Germany, for an event in the city of Cologne, and to Mexico. The total expense is R$ 50.4 thousand.

Sought after through their press offices, there was no response until the publication of this text.

There are two records in the name of the MDB leader in the Chamber, Isnaldo Bulhões Jr. (AL), one for Germany and the other for the USA.

Bulhões told leaf who could not go to the USA, but confirmed the trip to Europe, where he participated in events in Berlin and Cologne, at a cost of R$ 38.6 thousand.

The deputy also stated that the Apex initiative to take representatives of Congress and the productive sectors to other countries brings benefits to Brazil.

“The presence of sectors [da economia] is very important, as is that of representatives of Parliament. Things happen in politics,” said the deputy, who followed the agribusiness event and participated in discussions on the environmental agenda.

In the case of Expo Dubai, the agency informs in the spreadsheet that it paid for the trip of a team from TV Record, whose management maintains a good relationship with Palácio do Planalto.

The report contacted the broadcaster, but there was no response.

In a note, the Apex stated that updating the rules for issuing tickets and reviewing daily rates is a commonplace procedure.

“The agency follows and will continue to follow the legal determinations,” it said in the statement.

Regarding the guests who travel at the agency’s expense, he said that it is his role to promote Brazilian business abroad, whether at international fairs or business roundtables, among other events.

“This includes building agendas with strategic institutional partners at events organized by the agency.”

In the Bolsonaro government, the Apex has already changed presidents three times and has gone through successive crises because of ideological and political interference — it has been used to accommodate people linked to the president and allies since the beginning of the government.

Last November, as shown by a report by the leafthe Chief Executive ordered Apex to open a vacancy for his doctor in the Miami office.

Special advisor to the Presidency, Ricardo Camarinha wants to move to the US for family reasons. Without work, obtaining a residency visa would be more difficult.

The representation is headed by retired general Mauro César Lourena Cid, a former colleague from the Academia das Agulhas Negras. The soldier went to the Army reserve in 2019.

Cid is the father of assistant Mauro Cid, indicted by the Federal Police for involvement in the leak of an investigation opened to investigate a hacker attack on the Electoral Justice in the 2018 elections.

It was based on this material, illegally shared by him on his social networks, according to the PF, that Bolsonaro spread false news about an alleged vulnerability of electronic voting machines.

The first president of Apex was Alecxandro Carrero, who fell after a clash with the controversial Letícia Catel, a close friend of Eduardo Bolsonaro and then Chancellor Ernesto Araújo who had been accommodated in the Business directorate.

Then it was Mario Vilalva’s turn to leave the post, a diplomat who accused Ernesto of seeking to empty his chair to strengthen his friend, who had been the secretary general on a voluntary basis for Bolsonaro’s then party, the PSL, in São Paulo.