São Paulo governor minimizes conflict of interest with education deal

São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas said this Monday that contracts with a company of which Education Secretary Renato Feder is a shareholder were made “following the rules of the game,” but that new contracts will be prohibited from now on. 

Last week, The Brazilian Report showed that Multilaser, which is partially owned by Mr. Feder, received BRL 16,200 (USD 3,250) from contracts signed with the state health and science departments in 2023. 

The governor also implied that the values are relatively low, so they would not be so important — minimizing accusations of conflict of interest. He said previously this year that Multilaser could not contract with the state government, but the order was not followed.

The company was also hired last year to deliver laptops to São Paulo public schools. The agreement was made before Mr. Feder joined the administration. But he is responsible for overseeing the contract’s execution – and did not apply any punishments for a delay in equipment delivery.

Contracts with Multilaser for the education secretary amount to BRL 200 million. So far, the company has delivered 65 percent of the 97,000 laptops purchased.

The issue was made public after the state’s education department made the controversial decision of suspending the use of textbooks in public schools, forgoing federal funds in the process.

The state’s prosecution office began investigating Mr. Feder for an alleged conflict of interest, as his company manufactures the digital equipment that will replace physical books from 2024 onwards.

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