Former mayors of the AM will have to return about R$ 900 thousand to the FNDE for irregularities committed in education

The former mayors of São Gabriel da Cachoeira Pedro Garcia and Renê Coimbra had their accounts judged irregular by the TCU (Reproduction)

May 20, 2022

09:05

Ana Carolina Barbosa – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The former mayors of São Gabriel da Cachoeira (852 kilometers from Manaus) Pedro Garcia and Rene Coimbra had the accounts relating to the Commitment Term 03622/2012, signed for the construction of an educational unit, in the locality, 10 years ago, judged irregular by the Court of Audit of the Union (TCU), during an ordinary session held in the last day 10. They will have to return, between amounts transferred and fines imposed, about R$ 900 thousand to the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE).

The amount was updated by the Court of Accounts, considering the period from July 2012 to March this year. The decision, derived from the First Chamber of the TCU, No. 2492/2022, was published on Thursday, May 19, and the process was reported by Minister Benjamin Zymler.

According to the summary of the process TC 033.261/2020-2 the conviction came from a special accountability opened at the request of FNDE to investigate the “omission in the duty to render accounts of the resources transferred through the Term of Commitment 03622/2012, which had as its object the construction of a unit of early childhood education in Domingos Sávio Alley”.

Pedro Garcia was mayor of the municipality between 2009 and 2012, and Renê Coimbra, between 2013 and 2016. Both were considered revisees in the process. In other words: they were officially notified about the taking of accounts, but did not manifest themselves.

The judicial collection of the debt was authorized in the TCU ruling and the former mayors have 15 days from notification to prove the deposit of the amount in the accounts of the National Treasury. The debt can be paid in up to 36 installments.

History

The former mayors have a history of irregularities in the area of education. In 2021, Pedro Garcia had his assets blocked by the Federal Court, in a lawsuit for administrative misconduct, derived from a lawsuit filed by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF). According to the MPF, the company Vinka’s Presentes e Conveniências Ltda, whose owners also had their assets blocked, was hired by the City Hall to supply school meals to indigenous schools, from the Pnae (National School Meals Program).

The amounts, transferred via FNDE, reached R$ 2 million at the time. After analysis by the Office of the Comptroller General, cold invoices were detected in transactions made with the company, which totaled more than R$ 625 thousand in 2009, and more than R$ 119.7 thousand in 2010.

Also in 2021, the former mayor Renê Coimbra was convicted by the Federal Court for administrative improbity, at the request of the MPF, for irregularities in the construction of a daycare center in the town, with funds transferred by the FNDE. The politician, according to the decision, would have to return the full amount applied, which, according to the report of the State Audit Court (TCE), was R$ 291,000.

Reflex

The irregularities in education reflect in the performance of the municipality in the area. With an estimated population of 47 thousand people, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), São Gabriel da Cachoeira has one of the main education indicators, the Ideb (Basic Education Development Index), below the national average.

While in the municipality, the average for the early years of elementary education was 4.6, in Brazil, this number reached 5.7 in 2019. In the final years of this stage of education, the local average was 3.7, while in Brazil, it was 4.6. The report could not locate the former mayors to comment on the TCU’s decision.