Chamber installs CPI das Americanas: Republicans assume presidency and MDB assumes rapporteurship

May 17, 2023

3 min read

A Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry was established with the aim of investigating the company's accounting discrepancies, which reached a value of R$ 20 billion. In addition, two other CPIs were initiated this Wednesday.

The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) will investigate accounting inconsistencies - Photo Reproduction

A Chamber of Deputies installed this Wednesday (17) a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) with the objective of investigating the inconsistency recorded in more than R$ 20 billion identified in the financial balance sheets of Lojas Americanas. The reading of the request for the installation of the collegiate had been done by the President of the House, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), on the 26th of April. On the occasion Lira also announced the reading of two more requirements for the opening of CPIs: one related to the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and another focused on the investigation of possible manipulation of results in soccer matches.

A CPI

During installation, the members of the commission elected, by a vote of 16 votes, seconded and one blank vote, the congressman Gustinho Ribeiro (Republicanos-SE) as president. O deputy junior bro (PL-CE) was chosen as first vice-president, while Carlos Chiodini (MDB-SC) was appointed as rapporteur by the president. The CPI, requested by the leader of the Progressive Party (PP) in the Chamber of Deputies, Andre Fufuca (MA), had a total of 27 members and 27 substitutes. To date, only 17 full members have been appointed.

On the afternoon of this Wednesday, the first meeting of the committee began. Since the beginning of the proceedings, President Gustinho has emphasized the need to investigate those responsible for the fraud, maintaining, however, the country's economic stability as a priority and underscored the importance of holding those responsible for fraudulent practices accountable.

"We have to be aware of not destabilizing our country's economy, especially at the moment we are living," he said. "But we cannot admit any type of fraud that could scratch the image of our country, the image of our Brazil in terms of our economy."

The reason for creating the CPI

In January of this year, the Americans started a judicial recovery process due to the declaration of fiscal inconsistencies in the amount of R$ 20 billion and a debt of R$ 43 billion. This incident raised suspicions of fraud and is currently under investigation. The purpose of CPI is investigating such inconsistencies. The request for opening the Commission, proposed by Deputy André Fufuca (PP-MA), justifies that the establishment of the commission is necessary due to the fact that the "incident involving the Americanas, in this way, undermines the confidence of the entire stock market in Brazil".

“The episode with the Americanas thus affects the credibility of the entire stock market in Brazil and it is in the public interest to ensure that investors can be absolutely certain that the popular economy will never be harmed by any kind of fraud, mistakes or cover-ups of gaps in balance sheets, without the government investigating and exposing everything that happens in cases of this type”, says the document.