TCU can file action on work of court in Brasilia – 07/01/2023 – Power

An identified overbilling of R$ 13 million in the work of the new headquarters of the TRF-1 (Tribunal Regional Federal da 1ª Região), in Brasília, can be left without any responsibility by the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União). Court auditors asked for the prescription of the process – the construction, unfinished, has been stopped for nine years.

The work has already consumed R$ 547 million. Just to keep it still, public coffers disbursed R$ 37 million during this period. The expense is equivalent to an average daily cost of R$ 11 thousand, as shown by Sheet. The total budgeted cost for the work is R$ 1.4 billion.

TCU itself was the one who identified and calculated the overbilling, according to documents obtained by the report. Now, the technical area of ​​the body requests the prescription based on an internal resolution of October 2022.

Construction began in 2007, and the process that identified irregularities was opened by the TCU in 2014. The process was stopped in court from May 2014 to March 2020. Since May of last year, it has been awaiting a technical opinion on the allegations of the consortium of construction companies responsible, called New TRF Headquarters.

On June 15, the General Secretariat for External Control at the TCU asked for the irregularities detected in the construction to be archived.

In the document, technician Cassio Delponte Vidal, from the audit specializing in urban and water infrastructure, said that “in the meantime” a court resolution was published that brought new parameters for the statute of limitations, with immediate impact on pending cases.

According to Vidal, the punitive claims and reimbursement began to prescribe in five years. The intercurrent statute of limitations now applies in case the process is paralyzed for more than three years, pending judgment or order.

He pointed out that, before the rule change, the process “followed its course without any prescriptive cause, considering that the consolidated understanding of the court was that the claim for compensation was imprescriptible”.

The head auditor of the unit, Keyla Araújo, agreed with Vidal’s opinion, in a document signed on the same day.

She highlighted that when the TCU plenary judged the accounts relating to the work, in a judgment in November 2021, “the court’s jurisprudence predominated, based on decisions of the Supreme Court itself, due to the imprescriptibility of actions to reimburse the treasury”.

On the occasion, the ministers determined that the elements presented by the construction consortium after the conclusion of the procedural instruction stage were analyzed by the technical unit.

“It so happens that, on 4/20/2020, the Federal Supreme Court decided to apply the statute of limitations in these compensation actions”, added the auditor, then also citing the recent TCU resolution.

In 2014, court technicians verified that there was overbilling in contracting work services with values ​​above those practiced by the market, some without adequate quality and others with overestimated quantities.

The amount determined by the auditors reached the amount of R$ 3.9 million, base date of December 31, 2007, reaching R$ 13 million, according to the update calculated by the court. In all, the contract signed between TRF-1 and Consórcio Nova Sede do TRF to carry out the work was closed for R$ 477.8 million.

The construction companies Via Engenharia, OAS and Camargo Corrêa were part of the consortium. Sought, the defense of the consortium said it will not comment on the case.

The TCU audit defended that the accounts of Consórcio Nova Sede do TRF were judged as irregular, condemning it to pay the calculated debt and a fine. In April 2020, the Public Ministry with the TCU agreed with the proposal of the technical unit.

The process was appreciated by TCU ministers in November 2021, but former minister Raimundo Carreiro, then rapporteur of the case, suggested that the consortium’s arguments be analyzed.

The consortium presented additional elements of defense in May 2022 and the process, which was transferred to the rapporteurship of Minister Antonio Anastasia, has since been stopped for this analysis.

It was during this period that, according to the technical area, the case prescribed.

The opinions still need to be analyzed by Anastasia. Afterwards, there must be a vote among the ministers in the plenary.

TCU’s press office responded that Anastasia would not speak out, as there is still no court decision after the 2021 ruling.

“The process awaits a statement from the Public Prosecutor’s Office with the TCU and will then be considered in plenary. The technical unit’s instruction does not represent a court decision,” he said.

The TRF-1 advisory did not respond and claimed that the questions would fall to the TCU.

The design of the court’s new headquarters, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer, was planned for an area of ​​57,600 square meters, with three floors on pilotis and underground.

The construction includes offices of 350 square meters for judges and an area destined to the president with almost twice the size.

According to the court, the end of the work is scheduled for November 2030. Until then, the estimated cost of R$ 1.4 billion is more than double the amount initially calculated. All funds come from the Union budget.

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