The Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) informed that it will investigate a contract worth R$ 285.8 million, with no need for bidding, signed by the Ministry of Health with a micro-company with just one registered employee, at least until March. The agreement, signed in April, was to supply 293,500 vials of human immunoglobulin. The case was revealed by Metrópoles in September.
In an order signed on the 23rd, the CGU minister, Vinícius de Carvalho, informed that he will include the analysis of the contract in the controller’s schedule for evaluation in the last quarter of this year. The decision was made after a request for an audit made by federal deputy Luiz Philippe de Orleans e Bragança (PL-SP), based on the Metrópoles report.
“We understand that it is necessary for the CGU to carry out an audit to assess whether the aforementioned bidding exemption occurred in accordance with legislation and the principles of public administration”, requested the deputy in a letter sent on September 26th.
The minister explained to the parliamentarian that the controller operates according to an annual operational plan, which “contains the actions to be carried out during the year, planned based on the analysis of relevance, materiality, criticality and risks of the objects to be evaluated, also considering the” operational capacity of the organ. As there is no ongoing work focusing on this contract, the minister decided to include an audit in the schedule.
The Ministry of Health signed the contract without bidding with Auramedi, as a representative of the Chinese Nanjing Pharmacare. Auramedi’s headquarters is a house in a business center in Aparecida de Goiânia, the metropolitan region of the capital. Metrópoles was there last Friday (22/9), during business hours, but the place was closed.
Immunoglobulin is a blood-derived medicine, that is, produced from blood, used to improve the immunity of patients affected by a series of diseases, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome. Its lack in the Unified Health System (SUS) puts the lives of people who depend on the medicine at risk.
The company and the only partner, Fábio Granieri de Oliveira, are defendants for administrative improbity in a popular action at the Court of Justice of Pará.
The complaint, received by the Judiciary, indicates suspicion of fraud in a contract, also with an exemption from bidding, during the Covid-19 pandemic in the municipality of Parauapebas. Despite this, the company has no restrictions on participating in tenders or signing contracts with the Public Authorities.
In September, Fábio sent a note to the reporter saying that the information conveyed “regarding Nanjing Pharmacare” is misleading.
The Ministry of Health, in turn, informed that the emergency purchase aims to avoid shortages of immunoglobulin and that the acquisition followed regulations from the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) which deals with criteria for imports on an exceptional basis.
The ministry also stressed that the emergency acquisition occurred following a recommendation from the TCU in February this year, until the exceptional situation of unavailability in the national market was resolved.
The department also noted that it had been receiving medications from the company, according to the schedule, and that the company was in good standing at the time of hiring.
Operation Vampire
Nanjing is also represented in Brazil by Panamerican Medical Supply, which has as one of its partners Marcelo Pupkin Pitta, a businessman in the sector who was arrested in Operation Vampiro, in 2004, and again in 2007. The investigations revealed suspicion of fraud in bidding at the Ministry of Health, precisely in purchases of blood products, including immunoglobulin.
Panamerican even supplied immunoglobulin sent by Nanjing to the ministry in recent contracts. There were two large contracts, totaling R$647.2 million, with the Ministry of Health, in 2021 and 2022, during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Part of the value of the two contracts was paid this year, during the Lula government.
Another contract
The same bidding exemption process that ended with the hiring of Auramedi, as representative of Nanjing, also generated a contract worth R$87 million with Farma Medical, which signed the contract as national representative of Prime Pharma LLC, of the United Arab Emirates. The company did not deliver the medicines and, last month, the ministry was completing the necessary steps to suspend the contract.
TCU investigates
The TCU presidency authorized an audit of signed contracts, as shown by Metrópoles last week. The investigation was authorized following a request from federal deputy Kim Kataguiri (União-SP).
The Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) informed that it will investigate a contract worth R$ 285.8 million, with no need for bidding, signed by the Ministry of Health with a micro-company with just one registered employee, at least until March. The agreement, signed in April, was to supply 293,500 vials of human immunoglobulin. The case was revealed by Metrópoles in September.
In an order signed on the 23rd, the CGU minister, Vinícius de Carvalho, informed that he will include the analysis of the contract in the controller’s schedule for evaluation in the last quarter of this year. The decision was made after a request for an audit made by federal deputy Luiz Philippe de Orleans e Bragança (PL-SP), based on the Metrópoles report.
“We understand that it is necessary for the CGU to carry out an audit to assess whether the aforementioned bidding exemption occurred in accordance with legislation and the principles of public administration”, requested the deputy in a letter sent on September 26th.
The minister explained to the parliamentarian that the controller operates according to an annual operational plan, which “contains the actions to be carried out during the year, planned based on the analysis of relevance, materiality, criticality and risks of the objects to be evaluated, also considering the” operational capacity of the organ. As there is no ongoing work focusing on this contract, the minister decided to include an audit in the schedule.
The Ministry of Health signed the contract without bidding with Auramedi, as a representative of the Chinese Nanjing Pharmacare. Auramedi’s headquarters is a house in a business center in Aparecida de Goiânia, the metropolitan region of the capital. Metrópoles was there last Friday (22/9), during business hours, but the place was closed.
Immunoglobulin is a blood-derived medicine, that is, produced from blood, used to improve the immunity of patients affected by a series of diseases, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome. Its lack in the Unified Health System (SUS) puts the lives of people who depend on the medicine at risk.
The company and the only partner, Fábio Granieri de Oliveira, are defendants for administrative improbity in a popular action at the Court of Justice of Pará.
The complaint, received by the Judiciary, indicates suspicion of fraud in a contract, also with an exemption from bidding, during the Covid-19 pandemic in the municipality of Parauapebas. Despite this, the company has no restrictions on participating in tenders or signing contracts with the Public Authorities.
In September, Fábio sent a note to the reporter saying that the information conveyed “regarding Nanjing Pharmacare” is misleading.
The Ministry of Health, in turn, informed that the emergency purchase aims to avoid shortages of immunoglobulin and that the acquisition followed regulations from the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) which deals with criteria for imports on an exceptional basis.
The ministry also stressed that the emergency acquisition occurred following a recommendation from the TCU in February this year, until the exceptional situation of unavailability in the national market was resolved.
The department also noted that it had been receiving medications from the company, according to the schedule, and that the company was in good standing at the time of hiring.
Operation Vampire
Nanjing is also represented in Brazil by Panamerican Medical Supply, which has as one of its partners Marcelo Pupkin Pitta, a businessman in the sector who was arrested in Operation Vampiro, in 2004, and again in 2007. The investigations revealed suspicion of fraud in bidding at the Ministry of Health, precisely in purchases of blood products, including immunoglobulin.
Panamerican even supplied immunoglobulin sent by Nanjing to the ministry in recent contracts. There were two large contracts, totaling R$647.2 million, with the Ministry of Health, in 2021 and 2022, during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Part of the value of the two contracts was paid this year, during the Lula government.
Another contract
The same bidding exemption process that ended with the hiring of Auramedi, as representative of Nanjing, also generated a contract worth R$87 million with Farma Medical, which signed the contract as national representative of Prime Pharma LLC, of the United Arab Emirates. The company did not deliver the medicines and, last month, the ministry was completing the necessary steps to suspend the contract.
TCU investigates
The TCU presidency authorized an audit of signed contracts, as shown by Metrópoles last week. The investigation was authorized following a request from federal deputy Kim Kataguiri (União-SP).
