To prevent Edmar Santos from losing his special jurisdiction at the Federal Regional Court (TRF), Governor Wilson Witzel decided to appoint him to another position created exclusively for the former health secretary: the extraordinary secretariat for monitoring integrated government actions related to COVID-19. According to Article 150 of the State Constitution, state secretaries can only be prosecuted by the Court of Justice. By symmetry, in cases before the Federal Court, only the TRF-2 panel could judge them. This measure eliminates the possibility of direct action by Marcelo Bretas against Edmar Santos.
Read the note by Lauro Jardim, from O Globo, about the appointment of Edmar Santos to the new secretariat:
Wilson Witzel, despite having fired Edmar Santos from the state's Health Department, kept him as secretary.
An extra edition of the State Official Gazette, which reports Edmar's dismissal, also reports his new appointment.
Santos will now serve as the extraordinary secretary for monitoring integrated government actions related to Covid-19.
Edmar was removed from his post, according to a government statement, "due to infrastructure failures in the field hospitals used to treat Covid-19 victims." The statement was an attempt to cover up and downplay serious issues at the Health Department: the fact is that Edmar Santos was removed from his post amid allegations of fraudulent ventilator purchases.
Days before he was removed from office, the Health Department was the target of a police operation investigating misappropriation of funds in the purchase of coronavirus-fighting equipment. His deputy secretary was even arrested.
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