The São Paulo state prosecutor's office (Ministério Público) has asked a court to order Mayor Ricardo Nunes, of the centrist MDB party, and João Manoel da Costa Neto, president of the city's regulatory agency SP Regula, to comply with judicial rulings tied to São Paulo's public street lighting contract, under threat of a daily fine of R$ 100,000 (about $18,500) each, according to a report published Wednesday by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.

Prosecutors want the Nunes administration and the municipal regulator to reopen and complete, within 120 days, an international bidding process for the lighting sector that was originally launched in 2015. The request, filed last Thursday, also demands that City Hall send monthly reports to the court detailing the steps it has taken.

The demand is grounded in a ruling by Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), which ordered the reinstatement of a bidder that had been improperly excluded from the process. That ruling became final on December 18, 2024, after all appeals were exhausted.

A billion-dollar gap between bids

The excluded bidder, a consortium called Walks, had submitted a proposal that, over a 20-year contract, would have cost the city roughly R$ 1.3 billion less than the one submitted by Ilumina SP, the company that ultimately won. Ilumina SP signed its public-private partnership contract with the city in 2018, worth approximately R$ 6.9 billion.

Although the original contract predates the current administration, prosecutors are seeking to penalize the sitting mayor and regulator on the grounds that the Supreme Court's order has still not been fulfilled. The city's Attorney General's Office (PGM), which handles the Nunes administration's legal defense, denies that the ruling is being ignored. City Hall, through SP Regula, argues the concession benefits the city, saying the Ilumina SP contract enabled a broad modernization of the public lighting network. Ilumina SP also denies any wrongdoing, saying every issue raised in the bidding process was investigated and clarified.