Justice and the Government of , temporarily led by the judge, stopped throughout April a series of contracts for resurfacing of streets and highways carried out by allies of the former mayor () and the president of Alerj (Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro), (PL), pre-candidates for the Guanabara Palace.
The contracts amounted to almost R$2 billion to be spent from this election year onwards.
Emergency spending by DER (Department of Roads and Highways) was halted by Couto’s decision. Those from the Municipal Conservation Secretariat were paralyzed by injunctions granted by the Court, after possible flaws in the bidding were identified.
In a statement, the Rio de Janeiro government stated that the suspension of hiring “aims to ensure transparency in the management of public resources, allowing the reassessment of investment priorities, without prejudice to the continuity of essential services and works considered critical for the population”.
The city hall said, in a statement, that the works were suspended due to “legal disputes between the bidding companies, without any relation to the administrative management of the department”. The works will resume, according to the city hall, as soon as the legal issues are resolved.
In the state, Couto for a month of the bidding processes underway at DER, at the Secretariat of Cities, led until March by Ruas, and at the Secretariat of Infrastructure.
DER had already started emergency contracting, without bidding, for highway resurfacing and maintenance services in 18 municipalities in the metropolitan region and in the interior. The estimated expenditure was R$189 million.
In the process, the agency alleged the need for emergency contracting on the grounds that “several stretches of state highways present precarious conditions of conservation, putting the safety of users at risk.”
The Secretariat of Cities, in turn, held a public hearing on April 9 to resume the Asfalto RJ resurfacing program, aimed at streets in interior cities. The package envisaged spending of R$846.1 million without a clear spending schedule.
At Rio de Janeiro City Hall, the Conservation Secretariat had the bidding for 3 of the 4 lots in the Asfalto Smooth program suspended by court decisions due to problems in the bidding. The planned investment is R$1.1 billion across the city.
The bids were initially held up at the TCM (Municipal Audit Court) last year, which determined adjustments to the notices. The electronic auctions were completed this year, but were questioned by companies that were defeated in the contest.
The three lots that suffered setbacks were won by the company MJRE Construtora.
In one case, a competing consortium claims to have been unduly disqualified. The price offered by the company was R$25 million lower than the winning one.
In this lot, facing the south, north and central zones, the machines were mobilized for a public event the day before the contract was signed.
To the court, the construction company MJRE presented photos of lanes of large avenues already milled — with the outer layer of asphalt removed — to allege the risk of harm to drivers and public coffers with the interruption of works.
The other two lots, facing the north and west zones, had their bidding questioned due to the fact that MJRE decided to give up one of them after winning the three bids. The Court understood that the decision on which lot should be given to the runner-up should be made by the municipality, and not by the construction company.
“The bidder who wins multiple bids has the duty to honor all proposals. Withdrawal cannot be used as a contract portfolio management tool to maximize profits, and must be justified individually for each contract, based on supervening and unpredictable facts”, wrote judge Helena Dias Torres da Silva.
