The State Court of Auditors will hold, on the morning of this Thursday (25), a press conference to present the balance of works stopped in the state, carried out in 2023. The survey has been carried out annually since 2014, always based on the previous year.
The study carried out in 2023, based on the year 2022, showed a total of R$ 1.8 billion in public works that were stopped or showed signs of being stopped in Pernambuco. The amount already paid corresponds to 31% of the total of frozen contracts (R$ 5.9 billion), and 9% of everything committed to public contracts in the year (R$ 19.3 billion).
The works are divided into unfinished, which are those that still have contractual support, but no services are taking place; paralyzed, which no longer have a current contract and for resumption it is necessary to have a new tender; and with signs of stoppage, when there are signs of services, there is a contract in force, but execution is below 15%, which indicates that the work could take up to 6 years to complete.
The TCE-PE identified 1,504 contracts without conclusion, of which 462 were declared paralyzed by the public managers themselves, and 1,042 showed signs of being stopped or abandoned, that is, they had negligible disbursements (less than 15% of the total value of the contract) in 2022.
The most affected areas were urban mobility (23.4% of total contracts); water supply services (11.1%); and dams (8.6%). Of the total number of frozen contracts, 1,185 are municipal and 319 are state.
The opening of the presentation was made by the president of the TCE, Valdecir Pascoal. The objective of the survey, according to the president, is to promote transparency and social control. “It is our vocation, as a control body, to encourage citizen participation“, he said.
He also added that last year, the court approved a resolution to open a conciliation table to, before deciding any punishment, try to find a solution for these cases.
Data
Among the unfinished state works with the largest volume of resources contributed are those in the North-South and East-West corridors, under the responsibility of the Pernambuco Department of Urban Development and Housing. In the first, R$161.8 million were spent (the contract is for R$186.6 million); in the second, the amount invested was R$136.3 million (contract worth R$168.7 million). According to initial planning, both should have been completed in May 2013.
Work on the so-called “dam belt”, designed to reduce the risk of flooding in Mata Sul, showed signs of being halted. In the Igarapeba dam, in São Benedito do Sul, scheduled for delivery in March 2014, the State has already invested R$53.7 million (contract worth R$136.1 million).
Among the municipalities, Recife comes first both in contracted amounts (R$ 726.7 million) and in amounts already paid (R$ 216.5 million). One of the contracts with signs of interruption, worth R$39.1 million, concerns the implementation of exclusive bus lanes. Of this total, R$19.9 million has already been executed.
In Cabo de Santo Agostinho, the second municipality in terms of amounts already disbursed through frozen contracts, the urbanization works for the Nova Era community and the sewage system for the Manoel Vigia community should have been completed 10 years ago. Of the R$32 million provided for in the contract, R$19.5 million has already been paid.
Flaws in the design, selection of suppliers and inspection by contractors are among the common reasons for these works to be stopped.
When the TCE-PE finds that the strike is the result of serious irregularities, the responsible manager may have their accounts rejected, be fined, and damage to the treasury verified, and must reimburse the public coffers. If there is evidence of criminal offense or impropriety, the case will be forwarded to the Public Ministry of Pernambuco.
Historic Serie
In the 2022 survey, frozen contracts totaled R$7.4 billion, of which 33% (R$2.4 billion) had already been spent without completing the services. In the 2023 survey, the volume paid fell by 8%. The number of frozen contracts fell by 16.7% – from 1,796 thousand, in 2022, to 1,504 thousand in 2023.
