Rui recalls that Odebrecht acted against his election.
The governor of Bahia, Rui Costa, denies receiving bribes from Odebrecht, as denounced by the group's former director, Cláudio Melo Filho; Rui says he may be the only governor in Bahia's history to end his campaign with a debt of R$ 13 million, "cultivated by not accepting irregular funds"; the governor criticized Odebrecht businessmen and recalled that the construction company "worked against" him in the 2014 election, when his strongest opponent was former governor Paulo Souto, of the DEM party; "I say loud and clear: this group did not want my election in 2014. They were speaking ill of me because I was the coordinator of the Salvador metro and I did not accept the proposal to add R$ 1 billion to the budget so that they could participate in the bidding process."
Bahia 247 - Governor Rui Costa denies having received bribes from Odebrecht in his 2014 campaign, as denounced by the group's former director Cláudio Melo Filho. Rui said at a meeting of mayors elected by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), in Salvador this Monday (12), that he may be the only governor in the history of Bahia to end the campaign with a debt of R$ 13 million, "cultivated by not accepting irregular funds".
"I left office with R$13 million in debt, and I still owe R$8 million. Do you think a governor with two years left in office who was willing to find a way around things wouldn't have already paid off that debt? So I don't find ways around things. Either the money comes in legally, according to the law, or I won't accept it. I said the same thing during the campaign. I made it clear that I received a lot of pressure from the campaign coordinators that we were going to end up with a very large debt if everything went according to the law, but I said: Screw it."
Rui Costa criticized Odebrecht executives, recalling that the construction company "worked against" him in the 2014 election, when his strongest opponent was former governor Paulo Souto, of the DEM party. "I say it loud and clear: this group did not want my election in 2014. They were speaking ill of me because I was the coordinator of the Salvador metro and I did not accept the proposal to add R$ 1 billion to the budget so that they could participate in the bidding process."
"At the time, they tried to appeal to then-Governor Jaques Wagner, who said loud and clear: 'Either you demonstrate that the budget is unfeasible, or we will not change the budget.' And we held a meeting in the governor's presence, and I showed, along with our technicians, that their request was unfounded. From then on, wherever I went, I received criticism for being intransigent and for not liking businessmen," said the governor of Bahia.
He claims he met Cláudio Melo only a few times, as he does with "numerous businessmen who seek him out to discuss state matters." "I don't have that level of intimacy with the person who made the plea bargain; I must have met him only a few times. He himself says he didn't follow 2014. It's become a joke in the press now with these plea bargains. The guy says: 'I don't know, I didn't see, I didn't follow, but I think...' How do you put people's names and images in 'I think'?" the governor questions.