Swedish firm banned from signing new public deals with Brazil

The Ministry of Transparency, Oversight, and Control declared Swedish construction company Skanska Brasil LTDA legally unfit for contracting with the public administration for two years. The decision was published in the Official Federal Gazette today (Jun. 9).

The ruling put an end to the administrative case against Skanska Brasil, lodged as part of Operation Car Wash, which probes into a corruption and money embezzlement scheme at state-controlled oil giant Petrobras. According to a note released by the ministry, the charges facing Skanska were based on two irregularities condemned by federal law: collusion between companies and bribery.

“It has been proved that Skanska spearheaded its actions alongside its competitors to make tenders less competitive. The construction company would previously settle on which one of its competitors providing services to Petrobras was to win the tender and which would put in higher bids to feign legitimacy,” the note reads.

Bribery

Also demonstrated was that the construction firm paid  public officials bribes adding up to $890 thousand to close a deal of over $384.4 million with Petrobras on the expansion of the Cabiúnas Terminal, aimed at receiving and storing the oil from the Campos basin, in Rio de Janeiro, the note goes on to report.

The ministry also declared that, in order to carry out the transaction, the company availed itself of Energex, a shell company with which Skanska forged a counterfeit deal to conceal the payment of bribes to former Petrobras Director Renato Duque. The wrongdoings were brought under scrutiny from 2003 and 2012.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira