Army prepares hospital without environmental licensing – 07/15/2023 – Power

The Army intends to take advantage of a loophole in Brazilian legislation to build a new military hospital in Brasília without the need to request environmental licensing from local authorities.

The land chosen by Força is 1 km away from the Brasília National Park —an environmental conservation area of ​​42 thousand hectares and close to the center of the federal capital.

The region is considered strategic by the Army. It is next to the 1st Guard Cavalry Regiment, four minutes from the Urban Military Sector and in the middle of a future neighborhood that the Government of the Federal District and the Force intend to raise in the coming years.

A Sheet had access to internal Army documents. The technical feasibility study, dated April 30, 2021, shows that one of the possible lines of action for building the hospital can avoid the environmental licensing process.

“Supplementary law No. 140 recommends that undertakings/activities of a military nature foreseen for the preparation and employment of the Armed Forces will be exempted from the environmental licensing process”, says the document.

The Force assumes that the construction of the new hospital has a direct connection with the preparation or employment of the military. With this guideline, the General Department of Personnel defined that it would be up to the Planalto Military Command to discuss waiving the procedure.

“In coordination with the Department of Engineering and Construction (DEC), carry out the environmental management of the enterprise, in order to carry out the homologation with the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources (Ibama) the exemption of the environmental licensing.”

The feasibility study points out that the exemption from environmental licensing “does not rule out the obligation to adopt environmental control and protection measures”. He also says that specific authorizations, such as for the use of water and exploration of deposits, need to be granted after identifying the possible environmental impacts of the works.

The Army claims that the new hospital must have as a guideline the “promotion of sustainability”, with the installation of a “deposit for waste from health services […] and a firefighting control center”.

Ibama, in a note, points out that the exemption is provided for by law and does not depend on a “technical analysis or authorizing act” by the institute. It is not yet up to the agency to question whether the hospital effectively serves for the preparation or employment of the Force.

“In practical terms, the Armed Forces make their own environmental regulation for environmental licensing, but they are obliged to comply with all current environmental standards, and in case of non-compliance with these standards, they can be inspected, fined or even embargoed by the inspection bodies. environment”, emphasizes Ibama.

The exemption request has not yet been formalized. “The project is still in the study and planning phase, and no act of contracting for said work has been carried out”, completes the Army.

The plan to build the hospital formally began to be developed in 2021. Despite the desire to lift the project in the coming years, the Force is faced with budgetary issues to make the new health center viable.

The total cost is estimated at R$202 million. The General Staff of the Army decided that the financial contribution will all be made through an exchange of land that the Force owns in the region of the old railway line in Brasília.

In 2006, the Government of the Federal District ceded an area of ​​4.3 km² to the Army. Força intends to subdivide the areas in the coming months and, by exchange, give the space for contractors to build around 20,000 residential properties to house up to 70,000 people.

The resources gained from real estate speculation, in the billions, will be reversed in investment in new undertakings for the Army —such as the new Military Hospital in the Brasília Area and the future School of Army Sergeants, in Recife (PE).

The allotment should have been done in 2021, but it is still locked. “We are waiting for the approval of the urban projects”, said the governor of the DF, Ibaneis Rocha (MDB), to Sheet.

There are still a series of uncertainties in the Army about the bureaucratic procedures for the asset maneuver, and it is not known when the resources will be in the Force’s cash. Nor is it certain whether or not the investment will be subject to the rules of the new fiscal framework.

Even with the unresolved scenario, Força decided to hire architecture companies to get ready the construction project of the new hospital.

BRL 3.8 million has already been spent on hiring a company to develop the architectural project and another BRL 18.6 thousand to create a model of the new hospital. The tender to define which company will carry out the works has not yet started.

Initially, the hospital should have at least 60 inpatient beds, 20 ICU beds, six operating rooms and 60 outpatient clinics, among other Army requirements. The service will be exclusive to active and inactive military personnel, military pensioners, civil servants of the Force and family members.

On the 21st of June, the commander of the Army, General Tomás Paiva, participated with four other stars in the laying of the cornerstone of the new hospital. The event took place on land covering more than 100,000 square meters, an area already deforested and surrounded by cerrado.

“This project is fundamental for our people and is a sign that we have paid attention to one of the Army’s priority issues: the military family,” said Tomás.

The Army already has a Brasília Area Military Hospital (HMAB, as it is known), in the Urban Military Sector. Generals who have been following the discussions told the Sheethowever, that the unit currently operates as a polyclinic, as it does not have adequate hospitalization capacity or comply with Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) resolutions.

In internal documents, the Force still shows concern about a possible interdiction of the current hospital due to electrical, structural problems and inadequacy to legal standards.

“Possibility of intervention by bodies such as CBMDF (Military Fire Department of the Federal District), Anvisa and other regulatory/supervision agencies”, highlights an excerpt from the technical opinion.

HMAB has only ten infirmary beds and another ten ICU beds. Most complex cases are sent to the Armed Forces Hospital or private centers, whose treatment costs are up to three times higher than in military units.

To justify the investment, the uniforms claim that it is not possible to expand the space of the military hospital already installed, because it is surrounded by other buildings. The technical feasibility study also argues that renovating the current infrastructure would be around BRL 50 million more expensive than raising a new building.