Source: Last Second, 23/01/2008

The technical cooperation term that will provide for the maintenance of joint actions and the exchange of information between the São Paulo State Treasury and the Public Ministry (MP) was renewed, on the 12th of this month, by the São Paulo State Finance Secretary, Mauro Ricardo Costa , and the attorney general, Rodrigo César Rebello Pinho. The official note on the renewal of the cooperation to combat tax evasion was released today by the Treasury Department.

According to the secretary, the renewal will be valid for another two years. The objective of the partnership is to carry out a permanent investigation and repression of practices aimed at structuring tax evasion schemes considered harmful to the State. For the secretariat, working together with the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) allows for greater effectiveness in investigating crimes that harm not only the Treasury, but all citizens of the State of São Paulo.

The cooperation agreement, between the Treasury and the MP, was signed for the first time in 2006, after the completion of Operation Arrocho, a joint action by the institutions, started in 2005, which offered decisive results for the reaffirmation of the partnership. Since the beginning of the cooperation, four major fronts of joint actions have been opened involving fiscal intelligence and numerous operations of task forces throughout the State of São Paulo, which resulted in dozens of inspection operations.