Funding for school food in São Paulo embezzled by cartel

Some $445 million are believed to have been embezzled in 65 contracts

Published on 09/05/2018 - 19:01 By Fernando Cruz - São Paulo

A probe by the Federal Police and the office of the Inspector General of the Union (CGU) discovered that students in 30 municipalities in São Paulo had been receiving lower-quality food as a result of a cartel of companies active in the embezzlement of public funds for at least 20 years.

The money is reported to have been siphoned off from the national school food program. Some $445 million are believed to have been embezzled through 65 contracts.

Operation Blue Plate ("Prato Feito" in the original)—a probe into the embezzlement of federal funds earmarked for education—was launched and included search and seizure warrants in the homes and offices of mayors in a number of cities in São Paulo. Searches were also conducted in the states of Paraná and Bahia, as well as the Federal District.

Modus operandi

Investigators say that five criminal organizations worked in city halls by means of lobbyists, directing concession agreements. Altogether, 154 search and seizure warrants were exercised, in addition to public officials ousted and 29 public contracts suspended.

There is evidence on the involvement of 85 people, among them 13 mayors, four ex-mayors, a city councilor, 27 public officials in non-elected positions, and another 40 people in the private enterprise.

The investigated may answer to the crimes of fraud in public concessions, criminal association, and corruption, with sentences ranging from one to 12 years in jail.

At the cafeteria

In some schools, all students were given was a cookie and watered-down milk, the police say. In Araçatuba city, children were banned from eating more than once, and were subsequently given the so-called blue plate specials—in Portuguese, “pratos feitos”, or “set meals,” in a more literal translation, hence the operation’s name. The city was given $1 million from the federal government over the course of two years, of which $612 thousand was embezzled.

The fraud scheme also affected other sectors in education, like the funding for uniforms, textbooks, and cleaning.

Assistance

In a note, São Paulo city government reported that the Federal Police have carried out search and seizure warrants in connection with school food in three cases from 2010 to 2011. Last year, the note adds, a task force was formed in collaboration with the finance authorities in order to enforce the payment of fines pending since 2013.

In one of the three cases fines were discovered to be overdue, and special forms have been printed out for the payment of $3.38 million so far, of which $2.5 million had been paid by February.

Translation: Fabrício Ferreira -  Edition: Maria Claudia / Mariana Branco

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