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HE Federal Public Ministry (MPF) in Minas Gerais filed a public civil action requesting judicial intervention in the OK (VALE3), with the removal of the executives responsible for the company’s security policy.
The MPF also calls for the suspension of the payment of dividends to shareholders, a movement that is being resumed, estimated by the Fitch agency at $ 2 billion.
Prosecutors believe that the mining company needs to change its culture of accident prevention to avoid new disasters such as the Brumadinho dam ruptures in 2019 and the Mariana dam in 2015.
In the request for precautionary measure, submitted through the Working Group Brumadinho, the MPF wants a judicial controller to be appointed to identify, within 15 days, the directors and other senior managers who should be removed from their positions.
The auditor would temporarily assume the functions of “breaking a hierarchical organizational culture rooted in resistance to exposure of problems.”
Vale did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For the MPF, the safety aspects considered by Vale focus almost exclusively on occupational safety and the safety of tailings structures has always been put in perspective.
“Vale has a real system of corporate irresponsibility,” prosecutors said, according to a statement sent to Reuters.
For MPF, these disasters are not exceptions, but rather a systematic risk management policy that prioritizes production and profit over safety.
Dividends
According to the action, as a coercive measure, the prohibition of the payment of dividends or interest on the capital stock was requested, “until the intervener proves the full collaboration of the company with the intervention measures, as well as, at any time, when they are reported. , by the designated intervener, difficulties, obstacles or delays in the fulfillment of the restructuring measures ”.
The MPF also requests that the National Mining Agency (NOTE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) are obliged to supervise and make the necessary recommendations for the implementation of the government plan proposed and developed by the intervener, submitting to the court a semi-annual report with the results of their evaluations.
The MPF cited that, according to the ANM, Brazil has 841 mining tailings dams, of which 441 are part of the National Dam Safety Policy (PNSB). Of these, 145 are ventures under the direct responsibility of Vale.
