Brazil prosecutors eye contract corruption at massacre prison

MANAUS/BRASILIA, (Reuters) - Brazilian prosecutors yesterday demanded a multi-million dollar private prison contract in Amazonas state be axed due to signs of corruption as the government blamed mismanagement for the country’s bloodiest prison massacre in decades.

Amazonas’ accounting court prosecutor, Carlos Almeida, said he found signs of payment irregularities in a contract the state signed with the Pamas consortium to manage all its prisons, including the Anisio Jobim penitentiary where 56 inmates died in an uprising this week.

The killings have raised questions about whether private companies should be running prisons in Brazil, especially in Amazonas where the inmate population has more than doubled since 2010.

The Pamas consortium, made up of Umanizzare Gestão Prisional e Serviços Ltda and LFG Locaçoes e Serviços Ltda, received about 400 million reais ($125 million) in 2016 to co-manage Amazonas’ prisons, Almeida said.

That was after Umanizzare signed a contract with Amazonas in 2015 for the consortium to run state prisons for 27 years at an estimated cost of 205 million reais a year, and received a payment of 198 million reais at the time of signing, said Almeida.

The difference between the 2016 payment and the estimated cost of the contract raised prosecutors’ suspicions, as did the original price tag which was well above similar agreements in other states, Almeida said.

“There are indications those payments could have been inflated,” Almeida told Reuters, adding that he had warned state authorities about problems with the contract and recommended they not sign the deal.

Umanizzare and LFG did not respond to requests for comment.

Brazilian Justice Minister Alexandre Moraes said the private prison management model is not to blame for the massacre, but pointed to mistakes by the administrators of the prison, which had three times as many inmates as its capacity.