Celso Bejarano
Instead of R$ 118.8 million, as reported last Thursday (2) on the website O Jacaré, GTX Construtora e Serviços Ltda signed contracts with nine city halls. The sum raised by the contractor jumped to R$167.5 million from December 2021 to date, a period of two years and four months.
The name of the construction company in question appeared twice in investigations conducted by the State Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Civil Police.
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One of them, in 2018, Pregão, an MPMS operation, which brought down a bid fraud scheme that had involved the city hall of Dourados, the second economic power in MS. Due to the influence of this investigation, GTX was left out of disputes, through tenders, for public works. The censorship lasted from 2018 until November 2021, when the Court agreed with the contractors’ appeal.
Two weeks ago, the construction company was once again involved in an operation, the Jazida, this time run by Dracco (Department for the Repression of Corruption and Organized Crime), a branch of the Civil Police.
GTX was suspected of overbilling in the paving work carried out in Bataguassu (311 km from Campo Grande). This construction began in 2022 and was never completed, according to the investigation.
Dracco reported that the construction company received more than R$5 million from the city hall. Still according to the operation, the municipality hired the contractor to pave the highway known as Reta A1, in Porto XV and the overbilling found would have been R$ 728.5 thousand.
Note released by Dracco on the day of the Jazida operation stated that: “despite the provisions of the executive project and bidding budget, in complete defiance of what was planned, the company excavated and removed significant volumes of land in an irregular deposit on a private property , located close to the work”.
Also according to the police statement: “it is possible to visualize the irregular deposit even through satellite images, which demonstrates the volume of earth extracted from the site. According to the expertise carried out, around 14,300m³ were extracted. The land should have been extracted from a regular deposit, located in the city of Bataguassu”.
The company
GTX Construtora e Serviços Ltda., whose headquarters are in Campo Grande, as stated in its records, has a share capital of R$4.9 million. Its owners, Ivan Felix de Lima, since September 2016 and Rodrigo Gomes Silva, who also became managing partner in February 2018.
The contractor deals with various activities, “in an absolutely comprehensive field”, as it is presented, ranging from road paving, drainage services to the installation of public lighting.
Ivan Felix Lima, one of the partners, became news in April 2018, six years ago, a period in which the 43rd Consumer Prosecutor’s Office launched an operation to combat the so-called financial pyramid through bitcoin mining, a type of virtual currency also known as cryptocurrency.
The businessman from the construction sector and 15 other people are still facing legal proceedings, which are in the final stretch. The supposed coup would have affected thousands of people and the loss, according to MPMS calculations, would have reached the figure of R$300 million.
Ivan Felix, at the time, denied participation in the plot and even supported the idea that he would be an “investor” and not a “business owner”.
Still in 2018, the MPMS imposed Pregão, an operation that dismantled a fraud scheme in bidding promoted by the city of Dourados. The action included the names of GTX partners, Ivan Felix de Lima and Rodrigo Gomes Silva.
From then on, October 2018, until November 2021, the contractor cannot participate in tenders due to legal force. However, the court accepted the appeal and GTX returned to the public market and can compete through tenders for works carried out by city halls. Almost always, the construction company wins.
Through communications released by city halls and published in official gazettes, it is possible to calculate the sum of R$ 167.5 million that was raised by GTX from November 2022 to now, note:
• Ivinhema City Hall – R$56.4 million;
• Água Clara City Hall – R$ 25.9 million;
• Ladário City Hall – R$ 24.2 million;
• Nova Alvorada do Sul City Hall – R$ 8.1 million;
• Três Lagoas City Hall – R$42.2 million;
• Bataguassu City Hall – R$5 million;
• Deodápolis City Hall – R$ 1.5 million.
• São Gabriel do Oeste City Hall – R$ 1 million
• Maracaju City Hall – R$3.2 million.
