Lula’s bet, PAC was marked by fraud and irregularities

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) main bet for this year, the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) was marked by several suspicions of irregularities and fraud during the other PT governments. In 2007, the year in which Lula launched the first version of the program, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) even blocked resources from 29 PAC works due to various irregularities.

At the time, most of the problems encountered by the TCU dealt with irregularities in the execution of agreements, overpricing, undue changes to projects and problems in the bidding process, among others. Among the PAC works that presented serious irregularities were those on the BR-163 highway, on the border between Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso, those for the integration of the São Francisco River, in Pernambuco.

In 2011, during the administration of Dilma Rousseff, another audit by the TCU pointed out irregularities in the planning and execution of the Arco Rodoviário project, a work of almost R$ 1 billion by the PAC in Rio de Janeiro. In addition, by 2016, only 16.8% of the slightly more than 29,000 works announced in the two stages of the PAC had been completed within the forecast period.

Now, Lula has indicated that he intends to “render accounts to the Brazilian press” about the progress of the new version of the PAC. The expectation is that the program will be launched on July 2nd with the resumption of works in all states.

“We will account to the Brazilian press for what we are doing and what we have decided to do. Nothing will be hidden. No difficulty will be hidden, no problem will be hidden and everything we do we want to make public,” Lula said during its ministerial meeting this Thursday (15).

In addition to the new PAC, Lula indicated that he intends to relaunch the Luz Para Todos and Água para Todos programs. These programs aim to universalize electricity and basic sanitation throughout the country.