MPCE launches Operation Medicar to investigate fraud at SESA.

Ceará 247 -  The Public Prosecutor's Office of the State of Ceará (MPCE), through the Group for Combating Criminal Organizations (GAECO) and the Criminal Investigation Unit (NUINC), and the Public Prosecutor's Office at the State Court of Auditors, with the support of the Civil Police, through the Police Station for Crimes Against Public Administration and Finance (DCCAFP), launched Operation Medicar on the morning of this Thursday (October 19). The operation investigates irregularities in the purchase of medicines and medical-hospital supplies by the Health Secretariat of the State of Ceará (SESA).

During the investigation, several crimes and irregularities were identified in acquisitions made by SESA from 2015 to 2017, such as the substitution of materials, payment to suppliers before delivery of goods, receipt of materials without registration with health surveillance agencies, and price gouging. Among the crimes investigated, it was found that the companies involved entered into contracts to supply products to SESA at below-market prices, intending, from the outset, to deliver different products or products of inferior quality to those actually contracted.

According to the investigations, this practice was carried out with the consent of employees of the Secretariat, who managed these contracts as if they were true "letters of credit," through which they demanded other products from suppliers and entered false information into the Public Administration's control systems. The investigated parties will be charged with the crimes of criminal organization, insertion of false data into an information system, falsification of documents, bid rigging, among others.

In this phase of the operation, Walécia Diana Gadelha Maia, an employee of SESA (State Health Secretariat), and businessman Francisco Reginaldo Alencar Costa were temporarily arrested. Search and seizure warrants were also executed at the residences of the suspects, at the Regifarma company, and at the following SESA sectors: the Drug Distribution Center and the Supplies Acquisition Unit. Further investigations are still underway with the support of the Civil Police and Federal Police, aiming to arrest other suspects.

The MPCE (Public Prosecutor's Office of Ceará) estimates that the companies under investigation received approximately 48 million reais from the State between 2015 and 2017. The investigation points to the acquisition of materials and medicines by several Municipal Governments under similar conditions, which will be further investigated in the next phases of the Operation.

Source: Press Office of the MPCE (Public Prosecutor's Office of the State of Ceará)