Government list for Petrobras board prioritizes names from Serpro and banks

The Federal Government indicated the names to compose the Petrobras board, sending the state company the list that had been awaited since April 23, when José Mauro Coelho was notified of his resignation.

This is the first step towards convening the General Assembly that may lead the current Special Secretary for Debureaucratization of the Ministry of Economy, Caio Mario Paes de Andrade, to the command of the company. THE CNN found that Paes de Andrade himself organized the list, giving preference to those he knew.

This is the case of Gileno Gurjão Barreto, current president of Serpro. He was the body’s legal director when Paes de Andrade left Serpro’s presidency to assume the secretariat in September 2020. In the body, the two had contact with Iêda Cagni, current chairman of the Board of Banco do Brasil. She was Serpro’s counselor for four years.

Before that, Cagni came to occupy the Attorney General’s Office of the National Treasury, a position that today belongs to Ricardo Soriano de Alencar, the third name on the list of the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Alencar and Barreto even met on February 11, 2021, according to the prosecutor’s official schedule.

The fourth name to join the collegiate is also a lawyer. Edison Antônio Costa Britto Garcia is the current chairman of the Board of Directors of BRB, Banco de Brasília.

The list also includes the name of Caio Mario Paes de Andrade himself and the number two of the Ministry of the Civil House, headed by licensed senator Ciro Nogueira. This is Jonathas Assunção Salvador Nery de Castro, who responds as Executive Secretary of the portfolio.

As the government currently has six seats among the eleven on the Board of Directors, these are the names taken for granted to fill the vacancies. But the list includes four other names, two current members of the Board and appointed by former Minister of Mines and Energy Bento Albuquerque and two representatives of minority shareholders elected by multiple vote.

The indication of the latter caused strangeness among the members of the Council, heard by the CNN who did not understand the reason for the government to include representatives of banks appointed by minority shareholders in the list.

José João Abdala Filho and Marcelo Gasparino da Silva already compose the collegiate, but they will need to go through a vote again among shareholders to be able to sustain the chair, since the voting system by multiple vote requires this.

Ruy Flaks Schneider and the current chairman of the board, Márcio Andrade Weber, are the representatives pointed out as having the best harmony with the current management. They were in the entourage of five councilors who visited minister Adolfo Sachsida last week.

Petrobras has not yet confirmed receipt of the list, but said it will comment on the matter.