Senator denounces federal maneuver to save Eike.
According to Senator Ricardo Ferraço (PMDB-ES), Ambassador Luís Fernando Serra, in Singapore, allegedly used the names of Finance Minister Guido Mantega and Development Minister Fernando Pimentel to transfer a R$ 500 million project from the Jurong shipyard in Espírito Santo to Rio de Janeiro; a representative of the shipyard revealed this to the governor of Espírito Santo himself, Renato Casagrande; in crisis, Eike Batista is increasingly seeking federal assistance.
Senate Agency - The President of the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense (CRE), Senator Ricardo Ferraço (PMDB-ES), announced in the Plenary that the committee will make a formal complaint this Thursday (14) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antônio Patriota, to investigate the involvement of the Brazilian ambassador in Singapore, Luís Fernando Serra, in the construction of a shipyard in Brazil. The complaint is that the ambassador would be proposing to the company Jurong the transfer of the shipyard that it started building in Espírito Santo to the north coast of Rio de Janeiro.
The project, valued at R$ 500 million, would generate six thousand direct jobs in the state. The transfer to Rio de Janeiro would benefit businessman Eike Batista, owner of the Porto do Açu port terminal in São João da Barra, north of Rio. In persuading the businessmen, the ambassador is reportedly using the names of the Finance Minister, Guido Mantega, and the Development Minister, Fernando Pimentel.
Ricardo Ferraço reported that the story was published by the Espírito Santo newspaper A Gazeta. The newspaper also reported that representatives from Jurong told the governor of Espírito Santo, Renato Casagrande, that they had been contacted to assess the possibility of building all or part of the project in Rio de Janeiro.
"We spent a day of intense work here in Brasília, talking with ministers. All accounts indicate that the Brazilian ambassador to Singapore, Luís Fernando Serra, contacted this company on behalf of the federal government. What seems to me is that this ambassador acted inappropriately. It is not appropriate for an ambassador, who leads and represents a Brazilian diplomatic mission, to improperly use the names of ministers," criticized the senator.
Ferraço further added that Espírito Santo has already suffered two major blows to its economy recently. The first was the reduction in ICMS (state sales tax) rates on imports, which drastically reduced the revenue of the Port Activities Development Fund (Fundap). The second was the new distribution of oil royalties. Now, it is also under threat of losing the shipyard.