05/24/2024 – 20:49
São Paulo City Hall has not yet received the R$51 million it intends to allocate to the purchase of land for the construction of Parque do Bixiga, in the center of São Paulo. This amount should be deposited in municipal coffers by Universidade Nove de Julho (Uninove), as part of an agreement brokered by the State Public Ministry (MP-SP).
To end a process in which it was investigated for giving bribes to municipal inspectors in exchange for tax immunity, the university committed to paying the City Hall fines and compensation totaling around R$1 billion. The agreement was approved at the end of March, but has not yet reached an outcome in court.
Last month, the CEO of Uninove’s sponsor, Anunciato Storopoli Neto, asked for the agreement to be challenged, claiming that he was excluded from the negotiations.
According to prosecutor Silvio Marques, who led the negotiations for the MP-SP, the records prove that the partner was aware of the conversations. “Before approval, Uninove gathered documents showing that he was notified via a notary’s office and that he appointed a lawyer who participated in the approval meeting,” he said.
Last week, Storopoli Neto’s appeal was denied by the court. In the decision, judge José Eduardo Cordeiro Rocha claimed that the plaintiff was trying to “modify the decision that was not favorable to him”. O Estadão did not locate Storopoli Neto’s defense.
The prosecutor believes that the issue will be resolved within the next 30 days, if there is no new appeal. There is still a deadline for a new objection.
Wanted by Estadão, City Hall has not clarified whether it will reallocate resources to make the purchase viable if payment of the fine by Uninove is delayed. The educational institution declared that it would not comment on the matter.
In total, the area where the City Hall intends to implement the new park will cost R$64.3 million. The value was agreed this week with the Silvio Santos Group, owner of the 11 thousand square meter plot located on Jaceguai Street.
To enable the transformation of the area into a park, the project still needs to be included in table 7 Master Plan, which defines the public parks to be created by the municipal administration. A bill with this purpose is being processed in the City Council and has already been approved in the first round. Once included in the Master Plan, the land may be declared as being of public use by municipal management, allowing purchase.
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