Brazil: “Forget adsense, I want a banner from the Senate!”

The little banner at the top right corner of the paraiba.com.br website costs the taxpayers of Brazil US$ 30,084.61 per month. According to the contract, this is for the “Provision of a promotional banner branded by the Senate with a direct link to its web page at www.paraiba.com.br over twelve (12) consecutive months.”

The scoop came from the Contraditorium blog, where Carlos Cardoso published the results of his investigation: the Brazilian Senate pays a monthly fee of US$ 30,084.61 for a 120×60 pixel advertising banner, a generous deal with a not very known website. The site www.paraiba.com.br [pt] is number 208,667 in the Alexa ranking, in which Contraditorium itself is far ahead: 98,637. Cardoso claims that this is not the first year of the agreement:

O contrato atual foi assinado 15/5/2008, mas não é o primeiro. Em 12/4/2007 assinaram um nos mesmos termos, mas custando apenas R$40.000,00 POR MÊS. Pelo visto os custos de manter sites online aumentaram bastante.

The current contract was signed on 15/5/2008, but it was not the first one. On 12/4/2007 a deal under the same terms was made, but costing only R$40.000,00 [US$ 25,039.17] A MONTH. It seems that the cost of maintaining online websites has increased steadily.

The links to the above mentioned contracts, both the first and the second, are available on the Internet. However, they have been modified since the leak on the blogosphere and the Portuguese word for “monthly” has been deleted. The original version of the latest contract as pictured below can still be seen in cache. ‘Monthly’ appears in capital letters below the amount of the contract (R$ 48,000.00 Mensal):

Bloggers were quickly following up. Blog de Aluguel [pt] went further with the investigations and discovered a few noteworthy facts about the domain owner (Henrique Cirne, from Era Digital Internet Graphics LTDA, according to Registro.br). Apparently, the group also owns the below domains:

domínio: correspondentejuridico.com.br
domínio: eduardomedeiros.com.br
domínio: efraimmorais.com.br
domínio: efraimorais.com.br

domínio: eradigital.com.br
domínio: falcoesdaserra.com.br
domínio: paraiba.com.br
domínio: ronaldocunhalima.com.br
domínio: william.com.br

Sim amiguinho, dominio de senador, eleito pelo democratas e tudo mais.

domain: correspondentejuridico.com.br
domain: eduardomedeiros.com.br
domain: efraimmorais.com.br
domain:
efraimorais.com.br
domain: eradigital.com.br
domain: falcoesdaserra.com.br
domain: paraiba.com.br
domain: ronaldocunhalima.com.br
domain: william.com.br
Yes dear friend, the domain belongs to a senator, elected by the Democratic [Party] and so on.

At least one of them hosts Efrain Morais’ personal webpage [pt]. He is an elected Senator [pt] for the state of Paraíba. Mário Aragão [pt] gives more details about the people mentioned in the domain names:

Quem é Efraim Morais? É um senador do DEMo (Paraíba). O mesmo que articula no Senado a criação de aproximadamente 90 “cargos de confiança” (sem concurso) de R$ 10.000 por mês. Quem é Ronaldo Cunha Lima? É pai do atual governador da Paraíba, Cássio Cunha Lima (ambos do PSDB). Deve ser coincidência!!!

Who is Efraim Morais? He is a DEMo Party (Paraiba) senator. The same one who articulates in the Senate the creation of approximately 90 R$ 10,000 (US$ 6,260.158) a month “positions of trust” (without civil service competitive examinations) . Who is Ronaldo Cunha Lima? He is the father of the current governor of Paraiba, Cássio Cunha Lima (both from the PSDB [Party]). It must be coincidence!

Manoel Netto, from T3cnocracia [pt], pointed out that beyond its astonishing price, the contract may also be illegal because it infringes Law 8,666, also known as the “Public Tender Law”:

Deixando claro, só se pode contratar um serviço sem licitação quando o mesmo for tão específico que não haja competição no mercado. Mesmo que fosse o caso do bannerzinho ser maravilhosamente único, serviços de publicidade são especificamente proibídos de serem tratados como inexigíveis, portanto, esse contrato não deveria ser aprovado, certo?

To make it clear, it is only possible to contract a service without bidding when it is so specific that there is no competition in the market. Even if it was the case that the little banner was so wonderfully unique, advertising services are specifically forbidden from being treated as exempt from bidding, therefore the contract should not be approved, right?

The more bloggers investigate, the more irregularities they find. Cardoso [pt] published an update:

A contratação dos banners ilegais também foi feita com esta empresa e com a Rádio e TV Paraibana.

The illegal banners deal has also been made with this company and with the Paraibana Radio and TV.

The first link above takes to deal for the same type of contract with another not so popular website. Similarly, the second one is a US$ 30,084.61 contract for “promotional banner branded by the Senate with a link address to its webpage (www.senado.gov.br)”. However, Paraibana Radio and TV does not even seem to have a website.

The debate has just started and the mainstream media is still behind. Many bloggers now are “concentrating efforts” and a sense of humour to get a similar deal with the Senators, with many publishing the banner on the left, which reads: “Dear Senators: Advertise on my site”.


21 comments

  • oops yes folks, I did a mistake, I was using Euros conversion instead of dollars, I’m sorry.

    @Bruno: take it easy…, antes de tudo nao sou americano, sou brasileiro. Segundo, nao generalize porque todos podem errar, inclusive voce… Na pressa de escrever o comentario, usei o Euro (que é o padrao no meu gadget de conversao financeira). falow?

  • […] fato vergonhoso que vemos também já foi noticiado no exterior em Global Voices Online. Acredito que podemos fazer que o Senado nos dê explicações públicas sobre essa vergonha […]

  • Hello all

    I’d like to say that Folha de São Paulo, considered the most important Brazilian paper, has “broken” the news a few hours ago (Wednesday, 09:16 Brazilian time, around 3 hours ago), however, they have forgotten to mention where the information came from, they haven’t added anything to what bloggers have already discovered and they didn’t mention the blogosphere protests:

    http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u422795.shtml

    And again they didn’t bring anything new at all… how disappointing…

  • It’s no surprise they forgot to quote (or credit) the blogosphere or any ‘smaller’ media outlets. If Brazilian newspapers have a hard time quoting and crediting each other, what to say about the “invisible and unimportant” bloggers? They only respect bloggers when it suits them, as they know most bloggers will love and cherish them anyway. :)

    Best,
    D.D.

  • I know, but I don’t mean only quoting and giving credit to a blogger, but mentioning that the blogs are talking about it would be good, wouldn’t it? It is also a fact, it is also news, and it would give them a bit more respect, because everyone by now knows where the scoop came from – imho…

  • I’m afraid a lot of Brazilian digital citizens don’t have a clue about the “existence” of the blogosphere, what to say about what the blogs are saying (and what news they’re breaking)…

    As I’ve said, the big media acknowledges and ignores the blogs at their own leisure, when it suits them.

    Best,
    D.D.

  • ah ah, that’s about to change, :D now we have Global Voices! But I do see why they don’t have comment box on the news piece…

  • I really hope that’s about to change due to Global Voices and similar groups, but I believe there’s still a long way to go…

    And maybe they don’t have comments box because they don’t want, or don’t care, to know what their readers think.

  • Oi Paula,

    O banner estava fora do ar na manhã de hoje… ou seja, além de ser um dinheirão jogado fora, o serviço ainda é mal feito… bjus!

  • Jenna Major

    Great idea. I always learn something new from your articles. Good post as usual. Bankruptcy Attorney San Antonio

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