The governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) chose Paulo de Magalhães Bento Gonçalves to chair Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM). The engineer will replace Mário Bandeira, indicted by the Brazilian Federal Police Department in December last year in the investigation, which investigates trains cartel. The scheme, according to the Federal Police Department, operated between 1998 and 2008, during the government of Mário Covas, José Serra and Geraldo Alckmin, all from PSDB.
In January, Bandeira had already said he would step down. He denies the practice of irregularities. Bandeira was indicted by the FP for alleged fraud. In 2005, he made an amendment to a contract signed by the Covas management ten years before that, with the Consórcio Ferroviário Espanhol-Brasileiro (Spanish-Brazilian Rail Consortium – Cofesbra) – composed of Alstom Brazil, Bombardier and CAF Brasil Indústria e Comércio -, for the purchase of 12 trains at the price of R$ 223.5 million, according to values of the time. According to the FP, Bandeira should have opened a new bidding, because of the time elapsed since the initial contract.
The FP said that the sixth amendment was signed “about 10 years after the original contract, expired in November 1st, 2000 with the provision and payment of bid trains, which was set up as fraud in order to avoid the bidding”. The final report of the FP survey attributes to Bandeira “blatant illegality for the illegal modification of the contract, not observing the need for a new bidding process for a new purchase of trains.”
FP points the intermediation of the engineer Arthur Teixeira, alleged cartel lobbyist – his lawyer, Eduardo Carnelós, says Teixeira is a consultant and has never paid kickbacks.
For the FP, the evidence for Teixeira involvement consists of documentation sent to England, where Alstom was under investigation. “An email seized by British authorities reveals his (Teixeira) mediation with the entrepreneurs and also that Bandeira was the main proponent of the amendment, clearly intending to avoid what would be the proper bidding,” says the FP.
The email was written by Teixeira, says the FP. “We were called by Mr. Mário Bandeira, president of CPTM, to communicate the decision to expand the train fleet that currently serves Expresso Leste (Eastern Express) as soon as possible. CPTM believes that the best solution to quickly implement this expansion will be through an amendment to Cofesbra contract, up to 25% of the original contract, which would greatly reduce the timelines of hiring and delivery due to the absence of the bidding process, in addition to maintaining the standardization of rolling stock of that line.”
The FP says Teixeira paid the kickbacks through GHT Consulting, from Uruguay. The delegate Milton Fornazari Junior filed criminal charges against Bandeira and the Operations Director of CPTM, José Luiz Lavorente, for violation of Article 92 of Law No. 8666/93 (Public Procurement Law) – when there is contractual change.
The government of the State of São Paulo is also studying frames to assume the presidency of Metro. There is the possibility that the position be concentrated by the very Transportation Secretary, Clodoaldo Pelissioni.
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