Lula da Silva’s future Minister of Culture has a millionaire debt with the public coffers and more

Lula da Silva’s future minister of Culture (MinC), Margareth Menezes, has not even taken office and may already be a problem for the next government.

This is because Margareth’s NGO, which carries out social projects, has problems in court.

In December 2020, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) condemned the Associação Fábrica Cultural to return about R$340 (US$64) thousand to the public coffers.

The amount refers to irregularities detected in an agreement signed in 2010, the last year of Lula’s government, between Margareth’s NGO and MinC, to hold a seminar on “identity cultures”.

According to the contract, the Ministry would release approximately R$760 thousand to pay for the event, with a budget of R$1 million.

Fábrica Cultural, Margareth’s Cultural Factory, would be responsible for the rest. When inspecting the agreement accounts, the TCU technicians found the following irregularities.

• Fictitious price quotation;
• The contracting of services without detailing the object;
• Payments for services that were not performed;
• Payments to people with ties to the public administration and overbilling of purchases.

In addition, the NGO did not provide the resources agreed upon as a counterpart. The documents were obtained by Veja magazine and published this Friday, Dec. 16.

Besides the problems cited, the TCU technicians identified a suspicious payment of R$120,000 to Foco Entretenimento.

When they checked the company’s board, they found it belonged to two directors of Margareth’s own NGO – which is forbidden by law to prevent public money from falling into the pockets of those who supposedly manage it on a non-profit basis.

The TCU ordered the return of part of the funds, which never happened.

Because of this, the NGO Margareth Menezes had its name entered in the Defaulters’ Register, which prevents it from signing new agreements with the public administration.

The Attorney General of the Union filed a lawsuit against the entity to try to recover the resources.

Besides the debt with the Ministry that she will command, Margareth accumulates tax and social security debts.

The Federal Revenue collects over R$1 million in uncollected taxes from two of the singer’s companies – Estrela do Mar Produções Artísticas and MM Produções e Criações.

With information from Revista Oeste