Fill ‘er up…

According to a story aired on the popular Brazilian Sunday evening news show “O Fantástico” this past Sunday, a group of volunteers has uncovered sweeping gas receipt reimbursement fraud by congressional representatives. “Conducted by an institution specialized in combating corruption, Operation Leaky Tank* showed unreal expenditures by congressional representatives on fuel: from January 2019 to December 2020, representatives spent more than R$ 27 million.” That is the equivalent of just under US$ 5,000,000 at current exchange rates.

“Legislating and oversight. Those are the duties of a federal representative. To assist with the good performance of these functions, the House provides a structure funded by the taxpayers. … Representative Daniel Silveira (PSL-Rio) is the champion of single fill-ups. He declared to the House the purchase of more than one thousand liters of gas in one single refueling.” Representative Silveira is currently under house arrest on unrelated charges of threatening members of the country’s Supreme Court.

Another representative, Emerson Petriv (Pros-Paraná), reportedly filled his tank 120 times … in under one minute … on New Year’s Day. Petriv, widely known as “Boca Aberta,”** alleges that this was a “typing error.” Several other representatives submitted receipts for - and were reimbursed for - similarly exaggerated amounts for single fill-ups and/or multiple fill-ups over very short periods.

* The operation is “Tanque Furado” in Portuguese, literally “a tank with a hole in it,” but with echoes of the common expression “papo furado,” meaning idle chitchat or meaningless small talk in general, but specifically doubletalk, poppycock, or BS.

** “Boca Aberta” literally means “Open Mouth” but is also a common pejorative meaning dullard or dimwit. And “boquiaberto” (based on the same words) means flabbergasted. Aren’t we all.