The Rio DMV: Raising a Slush Fund on the QT?

Tammany Hall, HQ for the Alfred E. Smith political machine in the 1928 presidential elections.

Neuza — my wife, aka “The News”– is stressed out over our vehicle inspection for this year.

Our car came with a certificate of proper emission controls when we bought it, but now our mechanic — whom we suspect of price-gouging as the deadline looms — says it is missing some sort of box that the inspection requires be installed.

The inspector said that only a hose needed to be replaced, but the mechanic said they were likely to notice the absence of that little black box on the next inspection,  in order to justify levying the fine.

Neuza has been on the horn constantly, begging and pleading and playing the tearful maiden in distress, and finally managed to get us a second inspection slot — the first was over three weeks ago; we thought were being espertos for scheduling early — somewhere out in the wilderness of the distant Zona Norte  on the last day for inspections, trying to avoid the R$500 fine. So obscure is the location of the licensed garage that we are planning a preliminary expedition to make sure we can locate it on the day.

The inventory of inspection appointments appears to dry up progressively as the deadline approaches. It could be explained simply enough by increased demand, but we and a lot of fellow paulistanos are paranoid and suspicious.

Already last year, we found out that officers manning the immigration desk at the Polícia Federal, where my permanent residency has been mired in bureacracy for two years, were busted for alleged bribe-taking and jeitinho-providing. Not to mention that our immigration lawyer, who moonlights as a member of the state police, was busted in a scheme involving the extortion of “rent” and “security” from unlicensed street vendors in Brás.

In that light, the following item from the Estadão today only tends to feed our paranoia.

Gist: Two VPs of the state motor vehicle department of Rio allegedly ordered 1,000 certificates of compliance for “roving inspections in upstate Rio” and sold them off to political cronies in order to raise political slush funds.

O Ministério Público do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (MP-RJ) denunciou ontem os ex-vice-presidentes do Departamento Estadual de Trânsito (Detran) José Cláudio Martins e Marcelo Maia por suposta fraude na elaboração de laudos de vistoria veicular. A denúncia também inclui mais cinco funcionários terceirizados pelo órgão.

The Rio state prosecutor (MP-RJ) yesterday charged two former VPs of the state motor vehicle department (DETRAN), a Mr. Martins and a Mr. Maia, for alleged fraud in the issuance of vehicle inspection certificates. The indictment also includes five employees of an outsourcing firm retained by the agency.

No relation to former Rio mayor Cesar Maia or his son, Rodrigo Maia, national president of the DEM (ex-PFL) political party, according to a rapid google. But it seemed prudent to check. In Sambodia, as in Massachusetts, Texas, Florida, Saudi Arabia, and Maine, politics tends to be a family business

Not to be confused with José Cláudio Martins Ferreira, a PT mayor of some little city in Rio state. I think.

Segundo o MP, havia uma rotina de elaboração de laudos sem que os veículos fossem vistoriados. Os documentos eram preenchidos pelos servidores terceirizados em uma sala anexa ao gabinete da Vice-Presidência do Detran.

According to the MP-RJ, certificates were routinely issued without inspections being performed. The documents were filled out by the employees of the outsourcing firm in a room adjoing the office of the VP of DETRAN.

Os laudos eram requisitados para utilização em um projeto de interiorização das vistorias realizadas pelo Detran e estavam sendo empregados, sem justificativa, na região metropolitana do Rio. De acordo com a denúncia, o esquema poderia estar favorecendo politicamente os envolvidos.

The certificates were requisitioned for use in a project of [roving vehicle inspections in upstate Rio] but were being used, without explanation, in the Rio metropolitan area. According to the indictment, the scheme may have been used to the political advantage of the persons involved.

As investigações feitas pelo MP revelaram que os fraudadores intensificaram sua atuação em 2006. Nesse período, José Cláudio Martins foi candidato a deputado estadual e o então Chefe de Gabinete Marcelo Maia assumiu o cargo de vice do Detran.

Investigations by the MP-RJ revealed that the alleged perpetrators of the scheme intensified their activity in 2006. At the time, Martins was a candidate for the state assembly and was replace by Maia, chief of staff of DETRAN at the time, as vice-president.

More detail from O Globo of Rio:

O promotor de Justiça Mateus Pinaud, da Coesf, explica que as investigações tiveram início a partir da solicitação, pelo Detran, de 1000 laudos para vistorias que supostamente seriam feitas no interior do estado. Porém, apenas 819 foram utilizados, e ainda assim na Região Metropolitana; o restante dos laudos foram destruídos.

Gist: 1,000 blank certificates were requisitioned and 819 were used. The rest were destroyed — burned, say the accused, as I read elsewhere.

Mateus Pinaud relata que pessoas formavam filas no andar da vice-presidência do Detran para ter seus veículos aprovados, sem que fosse feita qualquer vistoria.

The prosecutor said people lined up outside the VP’s office to get their vehicles certified without undergoing any inspection.

– Uma testemunha contou que parecia que o atendimento do Detran havia simplesmente mudado de lugar. É voz corrente que havia contagem de dinheiro, mas, quando a pessoa entrava no gabinete, a porta era fechada – diz o promotor, acrescentando que uma vistoriadora que não soube explicar o depósito de R$ 500 em sua conta está entre as denunciadas.

“A witness said it appeared as though the DETRAN service window had simply moved to another place. It is commonly reported that money was being counted, but when the person entered the office, the door was closed,” said the prosecutor, adding that one inspector who could not explain a deposit of R$500 into her account was among those charged.

Ainda segundo Pinaud, quase todos os veículos aprovados de forma fraudulenta neste período pertencem a pessoas jurídicas e realizam serviços de carga, como caminhões e carroças.

All the vehicles certified, mostly trucks and carts, belonged to registered corporations and were used in the freight hauling business.

Essa é a segunda denúncia contra ex-funcionários do Detran. Em dezembro de 2009, o MP apontou que, durante pelo menos dois anos do governo Rosinha Garotinho, uma mala com R$ 100 mil era entregue, mensalmente, por uma empresa a uma alta funcionária do órgão. Na época, foram denunciados o coronel do Corpo de Bombeiros e ex-secretário estadual de Defesa Civil Paulo Gomes, e a ex-assessora de Planejamento do Detran Suzy Avellar.

This is the second case brought against former DETRAN employees. During the Rosinha Garotinho administration, a briefcase containing R$100,000 was handed over on a monthly basis by a corporation to a senior official at the agency. At the time, fire brigade colonel and former state civil defense secretary Paulo Gomes was charged, along with former DETRAN planning aide Suzy Avellar.

I also read — in the Folha de S. Paulo, perhaps; you often have to read all the reports on a given incident to get a complete picture, or else simply read the original press release rather than the partial gisting of it by the Control-C Control-V press corps — that electronic records of the transactions were wiped out.

And that the current Rio state government had no comment, saying the alleged wrongdoing occurred during a previous administration. (The current governor and the Garotinhos — the Kirchner couple of Rio — are both from the PMDB.)

On DETRANS in general, a post by the fine blawger (law blogger) behind Lei e Ordem:

Detrans de todo País resolveram ignorar a lei federal 11.882, sancionada pelo presidente Lula em dezembro de 2008, e ainda obrigam adquirentes de veículos financiados a registrarem os contratos. A tunga varia de R$ 200 a R$ 800. Antes a cargo dos cartórios, a gazua pode ser entregue à empresa Megadata, de Carlos Augusto Montenegro, dono do Ibope, por recomendação da Federação Nacional das Seguradoras (Fenaseg).

DETRANs all over Brazil have decided to ignore Federal Law 11,882, signed by President Lula in December 2008, continuing to require those who buy vehicles on credit to register their finance contract. The resgistration fee varies from R$200 to R$800.

Minimum monthly salary just raised to R$510, I think.

Once the province of the registrar’s offices, the fee may now be paid to a firm called Megadata, the property by IBOPE owner Carlos Augusto Montenegro, on the recommendation of the National Federation of Insurers (Fenaseg).

I had to look up two words in that post: tunga and gazua.

IBOPE is a market-research firm best known for serving as the Brazilian Nielsen Ratings-analogue, and was attacked recently by the Rede Record TV network for allegedly cooking the numbers in its disfavor vis à vis its mortal enemy, the Rede Globo.

It is less known for having fat-fingered the monitoring of election advertising violations in the (quite obviously rigged) Mexican presidential elections of 2006. See

• Mexico: Brazil’s IBOPE Copes With Spot-Counting Flap
• IBOPE: Mexican Media Monitoring Muffed?
• Nielsen: Alternate X-Ray of IFE’s Black Box

Foi em São Paulo, há dias a reunião em que a Fenaseg recomendou os Detrans a usarem a Megadata para arrancar dinheiro dos incautos.

A meeting was held in São Paulo a few days ago in which Fenaseg recommended that state DMVs use Megadata to gouge the unwary out of their money.

A Fenaseg é especialista em explorar donos de veículos, como o “seguro obrigatório” DPVAT, imposto ao país pelo lobby das seguradoras.

Fenaseg is a past master at the exploitation of vehicle owners. Take for example the obligatory DPVAT imposed on Brazilian by the insurance lobby.

As the Web site explains — a private insurer called Líder Seguradora has the concession, apparently —

Outro dado importante é que o Seguro DPVAT é obrigatório porque foi criado por lei, em 1974. Essa lei (Lei 6.194/74) determina que todos os veículos automotores de via terrestre, sem exceção, paguem o Seguro DPVAT.

Another important think to know is that the DPVAT policy is obligatory, having been created by federal law in 1974. This law — Law 6,194/1974 — provides that all motorized land vehicles, without exception, must pay DPVAT insurance premiums.

Taxation with representation by the generalíssismos who closed the federal congress, censored the press, and sanctioned state terrorism against regime opponents. Nice.

No Rio, o Tribunal de Justiça decidiu que a lei federal 11.882 “não é aplicável” no Estado, e manteve o registro obrigatório nos cartórios.

In Rio, the state high court ruled that Federal Law 11,882 “is not applicable” to the State of Rio de Janeiro, and upheld the obligatory registration of vehicle finance contracts in the registrar’s offices.

The cartório — we use the 13th Regional Cartório of Butantã –is a peculiarly Brazilian institution about which there has been a great deal of news lately.

In the state of Bahia, for example, it was found that over 900 of these “notaries public” businesses were owned by persons who had not passed the required qualifying examination — many of whom obtained their license through political connections, as is the custom in many parts of Brazil.

The latest news is that the CNJ, the Conselho Nacional de Justiça — an independent oversight body for the judicial branch, presided over by the president of the Supreme Court (who is overseen by whom?  some ask) — will require 7,838 cartórios nationwide to be put back out for public competitive bidding.

Article Six of Law 11,883 states:

Em operação de arrendamento mercantil ou qualquer outra modalidade de crédito ou financiamento a anotação da alienação fiduciária de veículo automotor no certificado de registro a que se refere a Lei 9503, de 23 de setembro de 1997, produz plenos efeitos probatórios contra terceiros, dispensado qualquer outro registro público.

In commercial leasing and all other types of credit or financing transactions, the registry of the transfer of ownership of the vehicle contained in the vehicle registration, as established by Law 9,503 of 1997, provides sufficient proof to third parties, such that no other public registration of the transaction is necessary.

The “states’ rights” judicial philosophy famously embraced by Reagan — as part of Pat Buchanan’s southern strategy — and the Federalist Society — the ones used to oppose federal civil rights legislation in the 1960s, as you may recall, to which a majority of our current Supreme Court subscribe — are alive and well and working for the Brazilian justice system.

It goes even further, actually. The military, for example, believes it still has an independent “tutelary” role to play in the “defense of democracy” domestically, under the Constitution of 1988.

And so it goes, and so it goes, and so it goes, and so it goes …