The governor of Brazil’s Tocantins northern state has refuted any allegations of misconduct after the country’s federal police executed search warrants involving him and 41 others in connection with a probe into suspected fraud and corruption concerning COVID-19 funds. According to a police statement, suppliers of pandemic-related services were paid in full but only delivered a portion of the contracted services to the state.
Governor Wanderlei Barbosa is under investigation for his involvement with companies providing food kits as part of a government social assistance program between 2020 and 2021, as per a police source familiar with the matter. Governor Barbosa maintained his innocence in a released statement and expressed readiness to assist authorities, asserting that he was not in charge of the funds in question during his tenure as vice governor, prior to assuming the governorship in 2022.
In response, the governor’s office emphasized that the state government is actively cooperating with the ongoing investigation and stressed the importance of clarifying the situation, stating, “It’s in the state government’s interest that these facts are properly clarified.”
