RIO DE JANEIRO - As COVID-19 patients flooded Rio de Janeiro's public health system from early April to late May, Dr. Pedro Archer found himself making gut-wrenching decisions.
RIO DE JANEIRO - As COVID-19 patients flooded Rio de Janeiro's public health system from early April to late May, Dr. Pedro Archer found himself making gut-wrenching decisions.
Rio state Health Secretary Edmar Santos was arrested July 10 and charged with corruption in connection with those contracts. A lawyer for Santos did not respond to a request for comment. Santos admitted to participating in various illicit schemes involving rigged public tenders, according to confidential court documents prepared by federal investigators laying out the alleged scams, which were reviewed by Reuters. He is now a cooperating witness in the probe, the documents said.
If the city of Rio were a country, its per capita mortality rate from the coronavirus would rank as the world's worst, according to a Reuters calculation based on John Hopkins University data. More than 10,000 people have died from COVID-19 in this postcard city of sea and sand, and more than 18,000 statewide.
"The pandemic allowed governments to spend significant resources very quickly while internal controls were relaxed due to the emergency," said Guilherme France, research director for Transparency International in Brazil. "It ended up creating a perfect storm for corruption." Lawyers for Peixoto said he is innocent and did not participate in the field hospital deal. His trial is pending.
SES declined to comment on IABAS' allegation that the health ministry made frequent changes to the construction agreement. SES said it had saved more than 500 million reais by suspending payments to IABAS following the corruption allegations made by prosecutors. The ministry said it is cooperating with the investigation.Prosecutors say Rio's state government also rushed out ventilator contracts to three companies that had little or no relevant experience.
Rio prosecutors quickly identified irregularities, according to court documents, starting with the timing of the companies' bids. The little-known enterprises submitted their proposals less than an hour after SES opened the tender, which was not advertised beforehand, a sign the firms had been tipped off, prosecutors said.
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