RJ Justice Blocks Crivella goods for administrative misconduct

The 3rd Court of the Public Finance of Justice of Rio determined, in an injunction, the blockade of up to R $ 50.5 million in assets of former Mayor Marcelo Crivella, former Municipal Health Secretary Ana Beatriz Busch Araújo and former Under-Secretary Ivo Remuszka Junior for administrative misconduct and acts harmful to the administration.

The measure was granted in a public civil action because of contracts signed with the company China Meheco Corporation to restructure hospitals and purchase equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecution Service (MPRJ), the contracts signed were directed to favor the company, both by bidding and dismissal during the pandemic.

The estimate of damage to public coffers, calculated in conjunction with the Municipality Court of Auditors (TCM-RJ), reaches R $ 68 million, involving the purchase of medical equipment above demand, losses with exchange rate variations and overpriced in emergency acquisitions.

“Public agents acted unequivocally willfully, by favoring foreign company that agreed the payment of improper advantage over the contracts celebrated with the municipality, in favor of a businessman who, both ostensible and hidden, collaborated in Marcelo Crivella’s election campaign,” says an excerpt from the action.

Response

In a statement, the office of the former mayor and now federal deputy, Marcelo Crivella (Republicans), said that “Rio de Janeiro was the only city in the world that in the middle of covid-19 pandemic received 27 tomor, 800 respirators and 2,000 monitors. The capital made a 500-bed campaign hospital, 100 ICU”.

The text also says that “about the price, all material was bought a year before the pandemic, that is, far below the amounts practiced in 2020. Not to mention that at the height of the pandemic there was no device for sale. The action of the city was widely publicized in the press and allowed the capital to help other cities to save thousands of lives.”

Crivella’s defense said it expects the official notification to file the appeal.

THE Brazil agency failed to contact the others cited in the action.