In a public hearing at the Senate Education Commission, this Tuesday (5), mayors of three municipalities confirmed to senators that they were approached by pastors who asked for the payment of bribes in exchange for the release of funds from the Ministry of Education (MEC). The intermediation, according to them, would have been carried out by pastors Arilton Moura and Gilmar Santos, linked to the Ministry of Christ for All Church, in Goiânia (GO).
According to the report of the mayor of Luís Domingues (MA), Gilberto Braga (PSDB), he was contacted in April last year, when he was in Brasília to participate in an event at the MEC with the presence of the then Minister of the Ministry Milton Ribeiro and several mayors. A group of 20 to 30 people went to lunch, without the minister’s presence, at the Tia Zélia restaurant. There, Braga said that he was asked by Pastor Arilton Moura about what the demands of the municipality would be.
The pastor would have instructed the mayor of Luis Domingues to pay R$ 15,000 “to file the request with the MEC”. In addition, after the funds were released, Arilton Moura reportedly said that the mayor should give him “1 kilo of gold”.
“He said he had to see our demand. For R$10 million or more, we had to give R$15,000 for him to file a protocol. [no MEC]. And, when the money was already committed, it was to give a little X. For me, as my region was a mining area, he asked for a kilo of gold “, he said.
Faced with the request, the mayor added that he didn’t say “yes or no” and went to lunch. According to Braga, the payment was not made nor the demands released.
Another mayor, Kelton Pinheiro (Cidadania), from Bonfinópolis (GO), also gave details to senators of a similar situation. To the Commission, he said that the pastors Arilton Moura and Gilmar Santos would have charged a bribe of R$ 15 thousand to make possible the construction of a school with 12 rooms, budgeted at R$ 7 million, in the municipality. The approach also took place at a lunch with mayors who were in Brasília.
“Pastor Arilton arrived at my desk and approached me in a very abrupt and direct way: ‘Look, mayor, I saw that in your office you ask for a school with 12 classrooms. This school must cost about R$ 7 million. But here’s the thing, I need R$ 15,000 in my hand today, you transfer it to my account. For later don’t stick with me, because you politicians. They are a bunch of rascals, who have no word.’ That made me want to vomit,” Mayor Kelton Pinheiro told parliamentarians.
The mayor of Boa Esperança do Sul (SP), José Manoel de Souza (PP), was another one to denounce the collection of bribes from pastors. In his case, the requested amount – in March of last year – was even higher, around R$ 40 thousand. The former minister, the two pastors and the president of the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE), Marcelo Lopes da Ponte, would be present at the meeting.
“Pastor Arilton said to me: ‘Mayor, you know very well how it works, don’t you? It is not possible to help all municipalities, but I can help you with a vocational school. I write a letter now, I put it in the system and, in return, you deposit R$ 40 thousand in the account of the evangelical church’”, he reports. “I then hit him on the back [Arilton] and I said that it would not work for me”, he added.
Free access
According to the complaints, even without formal positions, the pastors had free movement in the ministry and intermediated the municipal claims with Ribeiro. The minister left the command of the portfolio after the release of audios in which he claims to give “priority” in the transfer of funds from the FNDE to “mayors who are friends of Pastor Gilmar Santos”. Ribeiro says the priority responds to a request from President Jair Bolsonaro.
Next Thursday (7) the Education Commission hears pastors Arilton Moura and Gilmar Santos. While Milton Ribeiro was still in office, the collegiate approved an invitation for him to appear in the Senate. The hearing would take place last week, but in view of Ribeiro’s dismissal, he did not attend or justify his absence.
Historic
The denunciations, which appeared in the press in March, led to the Milton Ribeiro’s fallwho is also a Protestant pastor, on the 28th. In his defense, the former minister stated that he did not commit illegal acts.
“I am fully convinced that I have never practiced any management act that was not guided by legality, probity and commitment to the Treasury. Suspicions that irregular acts were committed must be investigated in depth”, he highlighted.
He added that he decided to ask President Bolsonaro to resign from the post of minister so that there is no uncertainty about his conduct and that of the federal government. “My removal is intended, more than anything else, to make it clear that I want a full, fair investigation,” he said in a statement.
Investigation
Milton Ribeiro is under investigation for allegedly favoring the release of resources to city halls through the intermediation of two pastors. Religious people are also the target of the investigation that was opened by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), at the request of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
