06/28/2024 – 21:37
The technical area of the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) pointed out “serious irregularities” and possible direction in the bidding process of the Communication Secretariat (Secom) of the Presidency of the Republic for the hiring of consultancy companies in communication and social media management of the Lula government . The bidding notice estimates the cost of R$197 million to hire four agencies.
When contacted, the government did not respond until the publication of this text. The space remains open.
The TCU’s Specialized Audit Unit for Contracts identified evidence that the confidentiality of the authorship of the companies’ proposals was violated, evidencing some failure or fraud in the process.
The companies’ communication plans were supposed to be delivered in envelopes, keeping the information on each of the proposals submitted confidential. However, one day before the bidding results, the website “O Antagonista” published the results of the auction using codes, revealing the breach of confidentiality. In this case, secrecy was necessary because Secom analyzed the best technique, not the lowest price.
The bid was initially won by the companies Moringa Digital, BR Mais Comunicação, Área Comunicação and Usina Digital.
“The gravity of prior knowledge of the authorship of communication plans transcends the issue of secrecy itself. It lies precisely in the infringement of the principle of impersonality that should govern the evaluation of bidders’ technical proposals”, assessed the TCU’s technical area.
“If the technical subcommittee knew in advance the authorship of each technical proposal, as the evidence suggests, the fact constitutes a serious irregularity, as the representative maintains, resulting in possible misdirection of the competition and tarnishing the entire bidding procedure”, he continued.
The representations were made by the Public Ministry at the Federal Audit Court (MPTCU), by federal deputies Zucco (PL-RS), Adriana Ventura (Novo-SP), Gilson Marques (Novo-SC), Marcel Van Hattem (Novo- RS), Gustavo Gayer (PL-GO) and senators Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE), Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and Rogério Marinho (PL-RN).
Two of the companies initially declared winners, Moringa Digital and Área Comunicação, were disqualified because they were unable to prove their technical capacity to perform the services. The companies IComunicação and Clara Serviços Integrados de Vídeo were qualified as replacements. The bidding process is currently in the appeals phase.
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