CGU sees flaws and Codevasf annuls BRL 47 million bidding – 01/26/2023 – Power

An audit by the CGU (Controladoria-Geral da União) pointed out irregularities in bids for paving works by Codevasf (Company for the Development of the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys) in Maranhão.

In view of the errors shown by the control body, Codevasf informed that it canceled one of the bids, for works worth BRL 47 million, and that it will carry out a new analysis of the other trading sessions, which total approximately BRL 110 million.

Part of the works will be financed with money from rapporteur amendments – used as a political negotiation currency between the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) and Congress. They were extinguished by decision of the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

The CGU analyzed three auctions made to record prices to be charged by companies in future asphalting contracts – the winner is whoever presents the lowest prices for the estimated service. After choosing the company in this dispute model, Codevasf usually closes contracts for works indicated by parliamentarians.

Only one of the bids was canceled because it was in its initial phase. In this case, there was no contract signed based on the so-called price minutes.

The auctions were held in the last days of December 2021, a period in which the state-owned company was irrigated by parliamentary amendments and needed to direct resources for works before the end of the year.

The state-owned company only formalized the annulment of one of the bids last week, after the CGU finalized the report.

Codevasf argued that, if all bidding processes were annulled, there would be damage to the municipalities where the works will be carried out, as the Budget resources have already been pledged (phase in which there is confirmation that they will be used).

According to the CGU, the state-owned company improperly used a risk calculation that raises the values ​​of the services to be bid.

The works were contracted, according to the control body, in a model in which the municipality is in charge of the paving project. Therefore, it would not be necessary to add a margin to absorb possible unforeseen events.

“This already alleviates the contractor’s risk burden [empresa vencedora do pregão]due to the fact that he received the ready-made solution and any errors and omissions in the basic project would not be his responsibility”, says the CGU document.

Sought, Codevasf informed that it will no longer use the risk rate, identified as irregular by the audit. “The CGU’s recommendations were observed by the company and incorporated into its procedures”, he declared in a note.

Regarding the auctions at a more advanced stage, the state-owned company said that it will reassess the contracts based on what was raised by the CGU, but that, so far, the works have not started and that no amount has actually been paid to the companies.

Based on the price registration minutes, Codevasf closed ten contracts totaling R$ 42.9 million.

The state-owned company is occupied by nominees for centrão parliamentarians and has been one of the preferred destinations for rapporteur amendments since the mechanism began to be used by the Bolsonaro government to unite the allied base.

The CGU document reveals irregularities in the three auctions that presented TAC, Lucena and Engefort as winners.

The TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) points to the construction company Engefort as the main beneficiary of an alleged cartel scheme. The investigation was motivated by a series of reports by the Sheet and found that a group of companies acted in collusion in bids both at Codevasf’s headquarters, in Brasília, and at its regional superintendencies.

A contractor from Maranhão, Engefort dominated the state-owned bids in 2021 and in part of them used the front company Del, which was confirmed by court technicians.

The two companies participated in the trading sessions analyzed by the CGU, as well as Construservice, in which the businessman known as Eduardo DP is a secret partner. He was even arrested in a Federal Police operation in July of last year in an operation that investigated fraud in bids and embezzlement of federal funds at Codevasf.

The three contractors deny wrongdoing.

The CGU report also points out that during the trading sessions, signs of irregularities were identified, such as the summary disqualification of companies without giving a deadline for adjustments to the proposals, in addition to the exchange of messages —outside the bidding system— between companies and the area of ​​the state-owned company responsible for the bidding .

The control body also concluded that the format of the bid promoted by Codevasf reduces competitiveness, as it only allows the signing of a contract for large-scale paving works, without dividing the space into more municipalities or regions.

“There is no doubt that the non-division of the object potentially entails undue restriction on competitiveness, insofar as it raises, in absolute terms, the economic and financial qualification requirements: share capital equal to or greater than ten percent of the estimated global value, in addition to five percent of the amount contracted as performance guarantee”, says the report.

In response to the CGU, Codevasf committed to also following this recommendation.