Court Of Accounts Suspends Federal Fund Releases For Railway Transport Due To Irregularities In The Nova Transnordestina Railway, Prohibiting Funds Until Possible Losses Are Recovered

The Court of Audit of the Union (TCU) analyzed some representations that were presented irregularities in the scope of the National Agency for Land Transportation (ANTT), related to contracts for some constructions of explorations of the Nova Transnordestina Railway.

The cost of the works of the railway utilized resources from the General Budget of the Union (OGU), the Northeast Investment Fund (Finor), and financing obtained from the Northeast Development Fund (FDNE), the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), and the Constitutional Fund for Financing the Northeast (FNE).

The audit found some irregularities, including: authorization for the construction of the railway without prior bidding to the concessionaire that exploited the Northeast Network; precariousness, informality, and inaccuracy of the project plans; discrepancies between physical and financial execution, with strong indications that payments made would exceed the value of completed services; inaccuracy in the project budget.

Some other improprieties identified by the audit of the railway include: undue extension of the concession term; indicators of low quality of the services performed; distortion of the economic-financial equation established at the time of the celebration of the original concession contracts.

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The Court also found the illegality of the spin-off operation, with the irregular creation of two concession contracts for the establishment of new networks and granting them to the current concessionaire (Network II), rendering the majority of the original Northeast Network granted (Network I) unviable.

Due to all the consequences of the audit, the TCU determined, as a precautionary measure, to the Ministry of Infrastructure (Minfra), the National Agency for Land Transportation (ANTT), and Valec Engineering Construction and Railways S.A (Infra S.A.) that no federal resources should be released or authorized for any release for the works on the networks granted to Transnordestina Logística S.A. (TLSA). The entire prohibition should last until the completion of the accounting settlements, in which improvements are made and eventual damages caused by the Concessionaires and the Transnordestina Logística S.A. Railway (FTL) are compensated.

TCU and its Technical Unit are responsible for oversight, going to the Secretariat of Port and Railway Infrastructure Oversight. This process was reported by Minister Walton Alencar Rodrigues.

In 2020, the ANTT (National Agency for Land Transportation) presented a proposal for the expiration of the segment that was granted to TLSA. In July 2022, the TCU plenary had already authorized the resumption of public investments in the part of the project.

Last Friday (23), the ANTT signed the 1st Addendum to the concession contract with Transnordestinas Logística S.A. (TLSA). Although aiming to restore a new schedule for mandatory investments in Network II, which still remains in the concession after the spin-off of the Salgueiro – Porto Suape segment in Pernambuco. TLSA should consider a deadline of up to seven years for the completion of its works on the remaining segment of the concession.