City Council establishes Procempa CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry).

Deborah Fogliatto
On the 21 - The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) to investigate the Procempa frauds was installed this Wednesday morning (11), in the Porto Alegre City Council. The twelve councilors participating in the CPI, chaired by Mauro Pinheiro (PT), elected Nereu D'Ávila (PDT) as rapporteur and Bernardino Vendrúsculo (PSD) as vice-president. In this first session, it was determined that the requests delivered until Monday (16) will be voted on at the next meeting, in which the current president of Procempa, Maurício Gomes da Cunha, will testify.

The CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) is composed of council members Mauro Pinheiro (PT), Nereu D'Avila (PDT), Cláudio Janta (PDT), Mônica Leal (PP), Lourdes Sprenger (PMDB), Fernanda Melchionna (PSOL), Bernardino Vendrúscolo (PSD), Reginaldo Pujol (DEM), Any Ortiz (PPS), Mario Manfro (PSDB), Elizandro Sabino (PTB), and Airto Ferronato (PSB). The commission aims to investigate allegations of corruption involving the Municipal Data Processing Company. The Public Prosecutor's Office denounced last month that up to R$ 50 million may have been embezzled.

Mauro Pinheiro emphasized that "oversight of public funds is the Chamber's obligation" and presented the action plan to the other members. He suggested that, firstly, various documents covering the period from 2005 to 2013 should be requested from the company. These include: inspection reports, lawsuits filed, police investigations, audit reports from the Municipal Finance Department and contracted companies, internal investigations, administrative processes, and accounting records from the Employees' Association. Furthermore, the president believes that, in addition to Cunha, Geórgia Ferreira (former financial director of Procempa), Cláudio Manfroi (Procempa board member), André Imar Kulczynski (former president of Procempa), and representatives of contracted companies should be called to testify.

The vice-president of the CPI, Bernardino Vendrúscolo — elected despite clarifying that he did not want the position — appealed to his colleagues to finish the investigations before the 120-day deadline, so that they do not go into 2014. Following a suggestion from councilor Reginaldo Pujol, it was decided that the members of the commission will visit Procempa on the afternoon of next Friday (13).

Councilwoman Lourdes Sprenger (PMDB), whose appointed officials were dismissed less than a month ago by Mayor José Fortunati after supporting the creation of the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry), delivered several documents to the commission's presidency, including 29 videos of parties allegedly held with public funds, as well as a list of Procempa employees and clients, copies of contracts, board resolutions, minutes of the Board of Directors, and a listing of the company's monthly statement.

Despite not being part of the committee, councilman Mário Fraga (PDT) requested that the House's Attorney General be consulted before releasing the images, and was countered by Fernanda Melchionna (PSOL), who argued that the documents are public because they concern "parties held with public money." The president did not accept Fraga's suggestion and ordered that the documents be made available to the council members.

Sebastião Melo delivers documents and supports the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry).

A little over an hour after the session began, acting mayor Sebastião Melo presented the council members with the inspection report and some completed investigations, documents from the Executive branch relevant to the investigations of irregularities.

“The CPI is the most important instrument of the Legislative branch, and we want to collaborate with this investigation,” he stated. He also said that the government “investigated itself,” since the investigations, according to him, originated within the City Hall itself. The vice-mayor was accompanied by the current president of Procempa who, according to councilman Cláudio Janta (PDT), agreed to testify next Wednesday.

At the time the allegations surfaced, Melo employed André Imar (former president of Procempa) in his office after he was dismissed from the company. A few days after the allegations emerged, Mayor José Fortunati reaffirmed his partnership with the PTB, the party that had been in charge of Procempa since 2005 and which was removed following an investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office.