Public money supports hundreds of garbage trucks with inflated prices – ISTOÉ DINHEIRO

Federal public investment in garbage collection, an essential service for the well-being of the population, has become the focus of increasing and non-standard expenses in recent years. In the hands of Congress and the government, the purchase and distribution of garbage trucks to small towns jumped from 85 to 488 vehicles from 2019 to 2021.

Carefully evaluated, these expenses reveal transactions that are difficult to understand, such as the one in the interior city of Alagoas, which has less garbage than trucks to collect it, or the difference of R$ 114 thousand in the price of similar vehicles, purchased in the space of just a month – not to mention the presence of shell companies in the middle of operations (more information on the next page).

For two months, the team at the Estadão analyzed around 1,200 documents referring to the acquisition of these vehicles with funds from the federal budget, including reports, spreadsheets and videos, totaling 7.7 gigabytes.

The distribution of garbage compactor trucks is used by senators, representatives and mayors to win the sympathy and vote of voters in poor towns, where the arrival of this type of aid is visible and makes a huge difference. So far, the government has earmarked R$ 381 million for this purpose. The report identified evidence of inflated payments of R$ 109 million.

The difference in purchase prices of identical models, in some cases, reached 30%. Last October, for example, the government acquired a truck model for R$391,000.

Less than a month later, he agreed to pay R$505,000 for the same vehicle. There are also cases in which the government received vehicles smaller than the one purchased without recovering the price difference. A municipality with 8,000 inhabitants received three compactor trucks in a period of one year and three months, while nearby cities do not have any. Even an emergency aid recipient won bids to supply garbage trucks to the government.

The way it is set up, the purchase of trucks by the government to serve its base in Congress does not follow any public policy on basic sanitation and does not guarantee all phases of garbage collection. Trucks are destined for small towns without any plans to build landfills, as required by law. In Piauí, for example, the garbage collected is thrown on open land in 89% of the cities. Even so, the priority of state politicians was the acquisition of vehicles.

‘GARBAGE WASTE’. The arrival of garbage trucks becomes an attraction in these villages. In Brasileira (PI), Mayor Carmen Gean (Progressistas) delivered the same truck twice. In Mairipotaba (GO), there was a kind of “lixociata” – a motorcade to applaud the garbage truck. Even traditional politicians participate.

In August, senator and former president Fernando Collor de Mello (PTB-AL) released a photo next to the garbage truck in the city of Minador do Negrão (AL). Purchased with funds from the senator’s parliamentary amendment, the truck is one of the largest available on the market, with 15 cubic meters. To fill the vehicle, which cost R$ 361,900, the city takes two days.

Specialists in waste management do not recommend the use of these more powerful equipment in municipalities with less than 17 thousand inhabitants. Trucks are expensive, require trained personnel to operate them and have a high maintenance cost – repairs to the compactor need to be carried out in specialized workshops.

A study by auditors from the Audit Court of Rio de Janeiro considers the use of compactor trucks in cities with less than 17,000 inhabitants “inadvisable from a financial point of view”. The city that received Collor’s compactor truck has 5,315 inhabitants. Suitable for these cities would be the use of dump trucks.

FATHER OF LIRA. Barra de São Miguel (AL), a city governed by Benedito de Lira (Progressistas), father of the mayor, Arthur Lira (Progressistas), won three large-model compactor trucks in 2020 (two units) and 2021 (one unit ) that are mostly stationary. The municipality has 8,434 thousand inhabitants.

Meanwhile, 80 km away, the city of Marimbondo, with 13,193 residents, did not receive a vehicle despite insistent requests from Mayor Leopoldina Amorim (PSD).

“I’ve asked Fernando Collor, I’ve asked the governor, I’ve asked Arthur Lira. I asked everyone. So far no child of God has remembered. I’m almost crazy, waiting for this truck to arrive”, said the mayor.

Porto Alegre do Tocantins, with 3,200 inhabitants, received two trucks in a period of five months. It would take four and a half days to fill both vehicles, considering the amount of garbage produced in the city. Mayor Rennan Cerqueira (PL) told Estadão that he only asked for one, but received two. “One (parliament) offered it to me and the other one I asked for. My trash here is a lot,” he said, hanging up the phone when asked who he was referring to.

Correctly sizing the amount of garbage produced per inhabitant is the main parameter to calculate the municipality’s need and avoid overpricing or overpricing in the purchase of trucks, according to the Brazilian Institute of Auditing of Public Works. By not following this parameter, the government opens the way for fraud.

‘I AM CENTER’. The purchase of garbage compactor trucks skyrocketed in 2020, shortly after Centrão took over the Bolsonaro government. It was during the term of the current president that bodies such as the Central-West Development Superintendence (Sudeco), the National Health Foundation (Funasa) and, mainly, the São Francisco Valley Development Company (Codevasf) intensified the acquisition of vehicles .

During the government, 1,048 garbage compactor trucks were tendered by companies controlled by those sponsored by Centrão. The number went from 85 in 2019 to 510 in 2020 – a 500% increase.

Sought, Sudeco said that it acted according to an “alignment of the entire Executive”. Funasa claimed that it is the municipality that defines the size of the truck. And Codevasf denied wrongdoing. The Planalto Palace did not respond to questions in the report. The aforementioned politicians did not call back.

The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.