Eight councilors drop out, leaving Elias in the lurch.
It happened again at the City Council: eight councilors who had signed a request authored by Elias Vaz to open a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CEI) into excessive salaries backed down at the last minute and withdrew their names. Elias says that Mayor Paulo Garcia spoke to the councilors by phone. "Once again, councilors signed for the installation of the CEI and then withdrew. I regret this episode," said Djalma Araújo. Elias states that he will go to the Public Prosecutor's Office to request an investigation. In some cases, Comurg employees were earning up to R$ 40 per month.
Goiás 247_ Eight council members withdrew their signatures at the last minute, preventing council member Elias Vaz from submitting his request to establish a Special Commission of Inquiry into excessive salaries at Comurg. Elias had 16 signatures, and 12 names are required.
In an interview with Jornal Opção Online, Elias said that the eight councilors who withdrew their request spoke with Mayor Paulo Garcia (PT) by cell phone shortly before the session opened. "When the session opened, I went to file the document, but then President Clécio Alves suspended the session. The councilors left the plenary. They put the people who had signed on to speak with the mayor by cell phone. They managed to withdraw eight signatures," he told Opção.
The following individuals withdrew their signatures: Zander Fábio (PSL), Antônio Uchôa (PSL), Paulo da Farmácia and Divino Rodrigues (both from PSDC), and Bernardo do Cais (PSC), from the so-called moderate bloc, as well as Tatiana Lemos (PC do B), Paulo Magalhães (PV), and Rogério Cruz (PRB).
Councilman Djalma Araújo (PT) lamented the episode. "Once again, council members signed for the installation of the CEI (Special Commission of Inquiry) and then withdrew it. This time it was the CEI to investigate excessive salaries. I regret yet another episode...", he wrote on his Twitter.
Elias has not given up investigating the irregularities at Comurg and said he will go to the Public Prosecutor's Office. "I'm going to take what I have and take it to the Public Prosecutor's Office. If it were a case of suspicions, that's fine. But these are facts with clear evidence and they are published on the city hall's Transparency Portal," he told Opção.
Scandal
The councilman decided to request the establishment of the CEI (Special Commission of Inquiry) after verifying the payment of high salaries to Comurg employees. In some cases, these salaries exceed that of Mayor Paulo Garcia, which is R$19.237,24. One of the employees with a high salary registered on the Transparency Portal is administrative advisor Eterno Inácio da Silva, who received R$38.609 (gross) in April; R$24.130,69 (gross) in May; and R$83.916,13 (gross) in June, when vacation pay was also included in the salary.
Another finding is that of employees in the same position with very different salaries. The case of two level I urban cleaning workers is striking. While one receives a net salary of R$12.268,33, the other earns R$1.046,75.