The Rio de Janeiro Court suspended the mayor of Saquarema, Manoela Ramos de Souza Gomes Alves, for 90 days on Thursday (1st) and froze her assets for administrative misconduct. In the decision, Judge Marco Antonio explained whether an extensive explanation was absolutely necessary “to demonstrate the chaotic situation in which the public administration of the municipality of Saquarema has become entangled, which is most likely causing a drain on the municipality’s public coffers.”
The Municipality of Saquarema, represented by Vice Mayor Rômulo Carvalho de Almeida, filed a lawsuit for administrative misconduct against Manoela Peres, as the mayor is known in politics, and 14 other defendants, claiming that the city has been suffering serious damage to its public treasury due to the misdirection and illegality of contracts, which are often monitored by members of the corporate structure of the service providers themselves.
The Institute for Development, Research and Innovation (IDPI), for example, responsible for managing R$326 million, was the only one to present a proposal in a bidding process, and has direct participation from relatives of the mayor.
According to the first instance court, mechanisms were created within the municipal administration to provide economic and financial support to an ‘organization’ structured around the “Peres Family”, with the participation of companies, city hall employees, family members and, it is reiterated, the mayor herself, in duly coordinated actions aimed at the plundering of public money”.
According to the investigation, the civil servants remain silent due to moral harassment committed against anyone who opposes the mayor’s political group, which serves as an insurmountable barrier to the investigation of the facts and the necessary audit of contracts.
The Court also notes that the large value of the contracts involving people close to the mayor, “whether by kinship, affinity or hierarchical ties, must be taken into account. Therefore, given the serious evidence of the personal participation of Mayor Manoela Ramos De Souza Gomes Alves in the acts of administrative impropriety, I hereby order her immediate removal from office for a period of 90 days,” wrote Judge Marco Antonio Ibrahim in the decision.
With the removal of Mayor Marcela Alves, Deputy Mayor Rômulo Gomes will be in charge of the city hall.
