POLITICS-BRAZIL: Widespread Corruption Deepens Urban Chaos

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 15 1999 (IPS) - Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, is embroiled in a corruption scandal that allegedly involved nearly all city administration officials – from top to bottom.

Joint action by police, parliament, journalists and the justice system exposed a so-called “inspectors’ mafia” – an extortion network – embedded in the municipal government of Sao Paulo, a city of 10 million people. Nearly 100 civil servants already have been fired or arrested.

Among those detained, the highest ranking has been city councillor Vicente Viscome, accused of leading corruption activities in Penha, one of 27 decentralised administrative regions of the city.

Even the city’s mayor, Celso Pitta, faced possible arrest for negligence as more of the illegal activities of his subordinates come to light.

Councillor Cosme Lopes declared before the Parliamentary Investigative Commission (CPI) that the mayor had knowledge of reports that extortion was occurring in the regional offices.

According to one of the reports, Councillor Viscome demanded that the large-scale bakery Panco provide his people with 10 cars, an exchange that allowed Panco to continue production despite its non- compliance with a municipal regulation.

The CPI, which began work a month ago, was created to “clean up” the Council’s image as a result of findings by police and the public prosecutors office in December. Together with other government initiatives, the commission has since exposed more irregularities.

Council President, Armando Mellao, did not escape charges of being involved in corruption. A businessman and a police commissary testified that Mellao took “gratuities” from street vendors when he was head of the Sao Miguel regional office.

A lengthy prove by the newspaper O Estado do Sao Paulo concluded that 40 of the 55 councillors were involved in what it called the city’s “largest public administration scandal.”

According to the newspaper, the squandering of resources, fraud, nepotism and the transformation of politics into a “business exchange” caused the Council’s expenses to skyrocket 102.8 percent between the years 1990 and 1998.

Many city workers are unqualified, yet earn between 11,000 and 21,000 dollars per year.

The scandal began to snowball in December when businesswoman Soraia Patricia da Silva filed a complaint against the Pinheiros regional inspectors. For two months, they had demanded that she pay them 25,000 dollars to be allowed to build a gymnasium that apparently violated city codes.

“I grow angrier each day as I see how much corruption is hurting the city,” declared Da Silva, whose accusations initiated the first in the series of arrests of city inspectors.

Then the Folha do Sao Paulo newspaper revealed that 23 councillors had hired family members to work for the Council.

Widespread corruption in the municipal health system was next to be exposed, and included over-charging and contracts that favoured certain companies and politicians.

Media coverage of the affair has made Brazilians aware of the cause-effect relationship between corruption and the quality of life of residents in Sao Paulo, as well as other large cities in Brazil.

For example, 2.5 million people are living in 2,700 illegal settlements (according to Municipal Housing Office estimates) and, when added to those living practically on top of one another in poor and marginal neighbourhoods, nearly half of Sao Paulo is in violation of city regulations.

City inspectors take bribes to look the other way regarding the violations. The population vulnerable to this type of extortion is immense.

Silvio Rocha, one of the inspectors arrested, confessed that he had led land take-overs in the past with the intention of politically destabilising the city government, then led by the leftist mayor Luiza Erundina de Souza.

The disorganized illegal settlements have a degrading effect on the city. Drains and sewers are blocked with rubbish and spill over in a heavy downpour of rain. Other settlements on riverbanks contaminate the water, an already scarce city resource, leading to frequent water rationing.

Street vendors, who crowd the sidewalks, creating obstacles for foot traffic, are also in violation of municipal codes, but by bribing the inspectors they are allowed to continue their business. According to reports, the vendors represent the majority of the inspectors’ extortion victims.

The “inspectors’ mafia” has permitted city code violation in exchange for bribes in other areas of public service as well. The practice in public transportation and waste collection has had detrimental effects on the public and the environment.