The Belo Horizonte City Council becomes a scandal factory.
The legislative body of the capital paid, in just three months, R$ 4,4 million to an advertising agency famous for serving PSDB campaigns, ignoring a recommendation from the Public Prosecutor's Office. The president of the House, Lo Burgus, is going through a rough patch: during his administration, there was the scandal of the salary increase, the "stepmother's chicken croquette" incident, and even the censorship of a musician.
247 - City councilman Léo Burguês, from the PSDB party, assumed the presidency of the Belo Horizonte City Council at the beginning of last year with a challenge: to revolutionize the municipal legislature, professionalizing its management and increasing popular participation. So far, however, his administration seems to be marked by scandals.
The most recent of these is the payment of R$ 4,4 million to the advertising agency Perfil 252 in the first three months of this year. The complaint, cited in a report by journalist Amália Goulart in the newspaper Hoje em Dia this Friday, reveals that the Chamber ignored a recommendation from the Public Prosecutor's Office when making the payment.
The amount paid refers to advertising materials for the Belo Horizonte legislature. The amount is high, considering that Perfil received R$ 4,6 million from the City Council throughout last year. The Public Prosecutor's Office itself had already raised suspicions of directing advertising spending to the agency, whose founder and director is the advertising executive Cacá Moreno. He is a long-time advertising executive for the PSDB and its allies in Minas Gerais: he worked on the campaigns of Aécio Neves and Itamar Franco (PPS) for the Senate last year, for example. The Public Assets Prosecutor's Office will file a lawsuit for administrative misconduct against Burguês.
The large amount of money spent on advertising can be explained by the current situation of the Belo Horizonte City Council. Its negative image peaked at the end of last year when council members granted themselves a salary increase of almost 70%. The increase was quickly rejected by the residents of Belo Horizonte, who launched an unprecedented campaign on social media. Mayor Marcio Lacerda was forced to veto the increase, and the council members were subsequently pressured to accept the veto.
During the salary controversy, the situation worsened after it was discovered that the City Council had purchased nearly R$ 62 worth of snacks and meals from the company Trevo Salgados Congelados. A detail: Trevo belongs to Burguês' stepmother.
Attracting scandals, the president of the Chamber decided to play censor. He pressured composer Flávio Henrique to remove one of his songs from the market. The musician had composed a marchinha (a type of carnival song) for this year's carnival, called "Na Coxinha da Madrasta" (In the Stepmother's Thigh). In a short time, the song became a hit among internet users in Belo Horizonte. Speaking to 247 at the time, Henrique said: "The public will judge Léo Burguês, not me. I was reporting on a story. I'm not working for anyone, I didn't earn a penny for doing this."
Burguês, who is running for reelection, denied censorship. He now denies any irregularities in the hiring of the Perfil 252 agency.