In AM, the mayor’s relative’s company makes millions with ticket domination for Parintins Festival

Paula Litaiff – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The Amazon Best (AB), which has among its partners Geyna Brelaz, sister-in-law of the mayor of Parintins, Bi Garcia (Union), has a monopoly on the sale of tickets for the Folkloric Festival of Oxens-Bumbás Caprichoso and Garantido and should make more than $ 5 million with the prospect of selling passports for the three days of the event, this year, with values equivalent to a minimum wage (R$ 1,302). Geyna is the wife of businessman Valdo Garcia, representative of the AB company.

Intangible Cultural Heritage of Amazonas, the Parintins Festival becomes unaffordable for most families, considering that the average Brazilian family income is R$ 1,353 per month, according to the historical series of the National Household Sample Survey (Pnad).

Amazon Best’s exclusive contract for the sale of passports for the festival is not open to the public. CENARIUM MAGAZINE found out that Amazon Best’s monopoly contract is closed directly with the presidents of the oxen Caprichoso and Garantido. The leaders do not manifest themselves about the subject.

Last year, the presidents of the Bumbás received more than R$ 10 million in public funding for the event. The application of the funds became the target of investigation of the Public Ministry of Amazonas (MP-AM).

Read also: Procon-AM suspends ticket sales for Parintins Festival 2023 after failure in the system Amazon Best

Obscure billing

Without showing criteria for price composition and how it was benefited with the places, Amazon Best made available a map of marketing spaces for three days of the festival in the bumbódromo. There were 4,492 spaces put up for sale, besides the 50 boxes that the company doesn’t give transparency for commercialization. The bumbódromo has capacity for 35 thousand people, of which almost 20 thousand spaces are destined for sale.

In Amazon Best’s map division, there are 3,306 passports for the “special grandstand” at a unit price of R$ 1,145, which totals R$ 3,785,370; 592 passports for the “center grandstand”, valued at R$ 1,495, which total R$ 885,040; 282 tickets for the “type 2 seat”, priced at R$ 980, which account for R$ 276,360.

And 312 passports for the “type 1 seat” have a unit value of R$ 1,180, which together make R$ 368,160. If all tickets are sold – as happens every year – Amazon Best makes a total of R$ 5,314,930. The situation of the other 15,508 seats of the bumbódromo was not explained by the company nor by the Parintins City Hall.

Amazon Best joined the festival as of Mayor Bi Garcia’s third term in office in 2017. The mayor was elected for his first term in 2004. In 2008, he was reelected. He left in 2012 and returned elected in 2016. In 2020, he ran for reelection and was, again, reelected as mayor.

Ticket seller that sells tickets for the Parintins Festival for almost six years, before the operation was carried out by Tucunaré Turismo, the current seller of tickets for the festival has existed since 1999, but began to operate, technically, in 2005.

Procon and MP-AM

The first day of opening sales of tickets for the Parintins Folk Festival, last week, was marked by misunderstandings, confusion and the participation of agents of Procon-AM and the Military Police of Amazonas (PM-AM). The reason was a problem in the system, that did not provide online access for the sale of passports, forcing them to go to the headquarters of Amazon Best, located at Nova Prata Street, No. 225, Conjunto Vieiralves, Nossa Senhora das Graças neighborhood.

In 2017, according to the Parintins Amazonas Portal, the State Public Ministry (MP-AM) questioned the bumbás Garantido and Caprichoso in order for them to inform what the criteria for choosing the company Amazon Best in the marketing of festival tickets to the detriment of other companies.

The MP-AM also questioned the absence of bidding. At the time, the public prosecutor Carolina Monteiro Chagas Maia stated: “It is important to emphasize the urgency in providing clarifications, because, according to information, the said company would already be conducting ticket sales for the 2017 festival”. Six years later, the Public Ministry of Amazonas has not spoken publicly about the matter.

No transparency

Asked by the CENARIUM report about the performance of the company Amazon Best until the end of the mandate of the current mayor of the city, Frank Bi Garcia, the Municipality of Parintins answered that the contract is signed with bois bumbás Caprichoso and Garantido.

On the websites of Caprichoso and Garantido there is no transparency of ticket sales or what led to the choice of Amazon Best. The company was sought to talk about the subject and made available only the map of the seating areas of the bumbódromo and the ticket prices. The reporter requested the document and details about the percentages given to the bulls by Amazon Best, but did not get a reply.

According to the State Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy (SEC), the tickets are the responsibility of the ticket company, Amazon Best, which has a contract with the oxen. The Secretary of State and Creative Economy said it supports the bumbás and enables the realization of the festival in the bumbódromo.