President ordered minister to repeat arguments given at the meeting in interviews; document does not explain square in honor of partner
In the meeting he had with the president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) on the afternoon of this Monday (6.Mar.2023), the Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil), presented a dossier in which he refutes part of the suspicions of irregularities that have surfaced in recent weeks.
The document explains the payment of daily allowances on the minister’s trip to Maranhão, his home state, and the use of a FAB flight to go to São Paulo. In the latter case, after work meetings, Juscelino Filho participated in an event with an auction of race horses.
He attached to the report proof of return of the per diem received on weekends, when he had no activities related to the ministry. According to Juscelino, the ministry’s per diem and ticket system made payments automatically “for the entire period of travel”.
He also included in the dossier photos of dirt roads near his family’s farm in Vitorino Freire (MA), a municipality whose mayor is his sister, Luanna Rezende. Here’s the full (2 MB).
Juscelino argued to Lula that paving the roads that give access to the farm with money from the rapporteur’s amendments that he appointed as deputy is still a “project”, with the aim of “connect the countless communities that, today, live with mud and dust”.
O Power360 found that, after listening to the explanations, Lula ordered Juscelino to repeat them in interviews and public statements. In the assessment of the minister’s allies, he was inept in opting for silence in the face of reports that raised suspicions of irregularities.
In the dossier, Juscelino states that, on the trip to São Paulo, he met with representatives of the operator Claro on January 27 and held a technical meeting on January 28 with the team from the regional office of Telebrás and with the regional manager of Anatel ( National Communications Agency).
UNDERSTAND THE SUSPICIOUS
The minister seeing being the target of suspected irregularities based on reports published by the newspaper The State of S. Paulo who revealed that Juscelino used the FAB plane for a “urgent trip”. On the occasion, the minister advised animal buyers and inaugurated the “Roxão” square, in honor of his partner’s horse in the municipality of Boituva, in São Paulo.
Despite mentioning the trip in the dossier, the document does not explain the inauguration of the square and does not even mention the amounts used to carry out the work.
Another accusation against Juscelino is that, when he was a federal deputy, he used R$ 7.5 million from the rapporteur’s amendments to the City Hall of Vitorino Freire, in Maranhão, for the paving of roads. According to the report, R$ 5 million would be allocated to improving 19km of a stretch that gives access to 8 of its farms.
However, Juscelino does not mention in the dossier that Vitorino Freire’s mayor is Luanna Rezende, the minister’s sister. The document also says nothing about businessman Eduardo José Barros Costa, a friend of Juscelino and owner of the company hired by the municipality.
The minister also fails to explain two other accusations. According to the MPE (Ministério Público Eleitoral), Juscelino spent BRL 185,000 irregularly to pay expenses after the 2022 elections. BRL 570 thousand spent on an air taxi company.
In the dossier, he states that all his electoral accounts have been approved since his 1st candidacy. “The animals are also declared in the Income Tax and, in all years, the Federal Revenue approved the declarations”, he adds.
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