Haddad terminates vehicle inspection contract.
Drivers who have already paid will be reimbursed. The service will resume in 2014, without Controlar, a company under investigation for a series of frauds in partnership with the administration of former São Paulo mayor Gilberto Kassab.
By Gisele Brito, Current Brazil Network - Mayor Fernando Haddad (PT) announced today (11) the termination of the contract with Controlar, the company responsible for vehicle inspection in the city. The Municipal Comptroller's Office concluded that the ten-year term of the contract with the company expired in March 2012. "This is not a termination, it is a finding that the term has expired and that the administration has no interest in renewing it under the terms in which it was drawn up. We will proceed from now on. There will be a transition period and we will re-tender the vehicle inspection services in the city of São Paulo for the next period," he said.
Drivers who had already scheduled and paid for the inspection will have their money reimbursed. A new tender for the service should be launched by the end of October, and the inspection should resume in 2014. Approximately 300 vehicles were required to undergo the procedure this year. Now, they will have to do so next year.
Controlar was contracted in 1996, during Celso Pitta's administration (formerly of the PPB party), but the services were not implemented until Gilberto Kassab's (PSD) administration. Earlier this year, the São Paulo State Court accepted charges against the former mayor, accused of causing R$ 1,1 billion in damages to public funds. The Public Prosecutor's Office believes that Kassab committed a crime by reactivating a contract that had expired two years earlier, and questioned the politician's motivations.
The suspension of the contract with the company was one of Haddad's campaign promises. In March, he managed to get a bill approved in the City Council, despite opposition from allies of his predecessor, so that residents of the capital will no longer have to pay vehicle inspection fees starting in 2014. Furthermore, the service will be offered in a decentralized manner by several companies, and the fee will only be charged on the second inspection if the first inspection fails.
There are still two administrative proceedings against Controlar. One relates to an irregularity in the raising of capital, and the other concerns the validity of the contract, in an action for administrative misconduct.