Justice spends BRL 37 million to keep work stopped in the DF – 06/09/2023 – Power

Stopped for almost nine years, the works of the new headquarters of the TRF-1 (Tribunal Regional Federal da 1ª Região), in the central region of Brasília, have already resulted in an expense of R$ 37 million just to maintain what has already been built over the course of of all these years —that is, an average daily cost of around R$11,000.

The project, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, was planned for an area of ​​57,600 square meters, with three floors on stilts and underground, in the South Federal Administration Sector.

The construction includes offices of 350 square meters for judges and an area destined to the president of almost twice as much, 615 square meters.

In all, the building has already consumed R$ 547 million from public coffers. According to the court, the end of the work is scheduled for November 2030. By then, the cost will rise to R$ 1.4 billion, more than double what was estimated when the project was started.

All resources come from the Union budget, according to limits set by the Federal Justice Council (CJF), according to the body.

The purpose of the project was to accommodate the expansion of the court from 27 to 51 members and the large volume of cases in the Federal Court of 1st Degree. However, the expectation was not confirmed, and the court has 26 members.

In 2008, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Federal District even filed a public civil action asking for the suspension of construction.

For Republic attorney Rômulo Moreira Conrado, it is an “attack to the principle of economy”. At the time, the work was budgeted at BRL 480 million, with a forecast for completion in 2015.

The TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) found overpricing and, in 2009, the TRF-1 annulled a bid after irregularities were found in the execution.

Since then, several contracts have already been interrupted. The first was signed with the consortium of companies Via Engenharia, OAS and Camargo Corrêa, in 2007.

According to the court, the last one was signed in 2013, with the construction company LDN Ltda, for the protection of structures and execution of rainwater drainage services. Services were completed in October 2014.

Once the contract was terminated, the objective became the technological and normative updating of the projects, the agency responded to the Sheet.

For the conservation of buildings already built, for example, the need arose to close a contract for the recovery and restoration of concrete structures in 2014, for BRL 9.9 million. Soon after, the project was updated for BRL 571,000.

In 2015, a contract was signed to oversee the updating of projects for BRL 205,000. Another BRL 2 million was spent on a new contract to inspect the recovery of structures.

In 2016, the court disbursed BRL 284,000 in provisional facilities for inspection and reception of visitors at the construction site, plus BRL 10 million in technical review, technological and regulatory updating of architectural and engineering projects.

Another BRL 358,000 was spent on the expertise of concrete structural elements and accessory services to determine the causes of progressive cracks in pillars and foundation blocks at the new headquarters.

The court disbursed a further R$2.2 million for “advising on receiving the review of updating and complementing the projects”.

Between 2020 and 2021, BRL 860,000 was spent on technological revision and updating, removal of vegetation remains and any debris, and maintenance and cleaning of the facades.

There are still two contracts open for 2022 that provide for the preparation of architectural and engineering upgrade projects and technical advice for the analysis and evaluation of these projects.

The construction of the new TRF-1 headquarters was even included in the Destrava project, a program that provides for integrated action between the control bodies and the Judiciary to enable the conclusion of works that are suspended, but did not succeed.

When delivering the project, Niemeyer went so far as to say that any architectural project presents difficulties in its idealization and implementation, “but the new TRF headquarters has a unique creativity”.

He also thanked the possibility of creating the new headquarters for the court “freely” and said that, when imagining the building, he wanted to combine “a functional and modern architecture at the same time”.

“This project was created with the care and dedication of my team and will undoubtedly be of great importance to Brasilia.”

For the professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at UnB, Frederico Flósculo, the episode shows the collapse of the court’s lack of planning and that the Judiciary has the most expensive buildings and most difficult to maintain in the country.

“The Judiciary has always shown itself to be good at maintaining its perks and privileges, an aristocracy only in the field of architecture that does not understand itself in terms of the construction of its buildings. It’s all uncoordinated”, he says.

The TRF-1 press office replied that the work is at a standstill “due to several problems that led to the termination of the contract with executing companies” and that there was a need for technological and regulatory updating of the projects, which is the current stage.

He also stated that there are costs with the maintenance of the construction site and surveillance of the site and that the estimated value “has been increasing in proportion to the rates of civil construction”.

“Due to the time elapsed between the preparation of the project and the return of the work, the original projects needed revision to adapt to regulatory updates, new system technologies and materials available on the market”, he said.

He also replied that, currently, there are two contracts in execution, but he did not inform the amounts. One deals with the provision of technical-professional services for the preparation of basic and executive projects, remaining from architecture and engineering.

And another for the provision of technical advisory services to inspection for the evaluation of basic and executive projects. He also said that the new headquarters aims to provide adequate infrastructure for all sectors of the body and optimize the provision of services to society.