The head of the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) buys praise in the Paraíba press.

247 – The chairman of the Cachoeira CPI, Vital do Rêgo (PMDB-PB), created a scheme in his office to publish favorable reports about him in the press in Paraíba. Student Maria Eduarda Lucena dos Santos, who claims to be the co-author of the hit song “Ai, Se Eu te Pego,” sung by Michel Teló, was hired as a ghost parliamentary assistant to receive payment for work done by her father and other journalists in local newspapers.

Read the report by Andreza Matais and Felipe Coutinho, from Folha:

The chairman of the Cachoeira Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, Vital do Rêgo (PMDB-PB), hired Maria Eduarda Lucena dos Santos as a ghost employee in his office. She claims to be the co-author of the hit song "Ai, Se Eu te Pego," sung by Michel Teló.

The job was arranged by Maria Eduarda's father, journalist Adelson Barbosa, who admitted to Folha that his daughter was hired to be paid for the work he and two other journalists would perform: publishing reports favorable to the senator in the local press. Barbosa, who works at the newspaper "Correio da Paraíba," said that the suggestion to circumvent Senate rules came from the senator himself.

“I [the senator] and I are the ones doing the work. When he invited us to do the work, he said he couldn't appoint three people. He suggested appointing one person and we split the cost,” Barbosa explained. “It could have been in my name, or in the name of one of the other two. But I couldn't, because the Senate required that I not have another [employment] contract. My daughter is a student, and I suggested that it be in her name.”

Maria Eduarda, 20, also told the reporter that her father is the one responsible for the position. She was hired in February 2011 as a parliamentary assistant with a salary of R$ 3.450. And she is exempt from proving her attendance.

A university student, she claims to have created "Ai, se eu te pego" during a trip to Disney with classmates in 2006. The courts granted an injunction in favor of her and her friends, blocking the money raised from the song until the authorship is decided. The hiring of ghost employees could lead to an action for administrative misconduct. The president of the CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) also employs relatives of politicians and allies in his office. He hired a daughter of former PMDB governor José Maranhão, the mother of federal deputy Hugo Motta (PMDB-PB), a cousin of former senator Ney Suassuna, and a sister-in-law of his first alternate, Raimundo Lira, with salaries ranging from R$ 2 to R$ 12,8. The senator also employs the wife of Carlos Magno, the communications coordinator for his 2010 campaign.