JBS and BNDES risk getting an empty Delta.
Fernando Cavendish's (right) construction company could lose R$ 1,2 billion in federal contracts if declared ineligible by the CGU; Joesley Batista (left), who is a partner of BNDES, owned by Luciano Coutinho, will present his defense by Tuesday.
247 - Businessman Joesley Batista, owner of the JBS Friboi group and the J&F holding company, argues that he entered into the rescue operation of the construction company Delta with the intention of saving 30 jobs. However, President Dilma Rousseff apparently did not like the deal and has already ordered Petrobras to cancel all contracts with Fernando Cavendish's construction company due to the company's poor performance.
Furthermore, next Tuesday marks the deadline for J&F to present its arguments in the process that could lead to Delta being declared ineligible. If this happens, the construction company would be reduced to a shell-less egg – without yolk or white. Since BNDES, headed by Luciano Coutinho, owns 31% of the JBS Friboi group, Dilma intends to dispel suspicions that her government orchestrated a political operation to protect the largest construction company in the PAC (Growth Acceleration Program). The expectation is that Delta will lose R$ 1,2 billion in federal contracts.
Read below a report by journalist Marta Salomon, from Estado de S. Paulo, about the value of Delta's contracts with the federal government, which may be canceled:
Threatened with being barred from entering into new contracts with the federal government, Delta Construções, which is under investigation by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) on the Cachoeira scandal, could also lose R$ 1,2 billion in payments due from ongoing contracts. This amount represents an unpaid portion of federal works scheduled to be completed by December 2015.
The accounting was done by the State based on data provided by the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU). In total, the construction company that led the ranking of government payments to companies for three years - from 2009 to 2011 - maintains 108 construction contracts with the Union, most of them with the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT), linked to the Ministry of Transport.
The suspension of contracts depends on a case-by-case analysis, carried out by the ministries involved, in partnership with the CGU (Brazilian Comptroller General's Office). Delays in construction or any irregularities are the main criteria for this analysis.
When questioned about the continuation of the works, Delta stated that it will only comment on the contracts signed under Fernando Cavendish's leadership after the completion of an audit of the company, whose control was transferred to J&F Participações SA, the holding company that owns the JBS meatpacking company.
The most expensive of Delta's ongoing contracts with the Federal Government concerns the construction of one of the sections of the São Francisco River diversion project, in Mauriti (CE). Signed in 2008, the contract with Delta and two other companies in the Northeast Consortium was extended until August of this year.
Of the total contract value of R$ 265,4 million, R$ 152,9 million has been paid, but less than half of the work has been completed.
A report by the CGU (Brazilian Federal Comptroller General) points to problems in the execution, monitoring, and management of this section of the São Francisco River diversion project. "Improper measurements of services and low execution of contracts in relation to the planned schedule were also verified, in addition to significant contract alterations," says the Comptroller's Office.
There are several highway construction and maintenance contracts worth over R$100 million still underway. This is the case for three contracts valid until 2013: two sections for the duplication and restoration of the BR-101 highway and the upgrading of the BR-060 highway in Goiás. In these projects, Delta is working in consortium with the construction companies Queiroz Galvão, JM, and CBEMI. Delta's contract with the furthest completion deadline – December 2015 – is the rehabilitation of the BR-174 highway in Amazonas.
These latest contracts with Delta do not appear on the list of 80 deals closed with the construction company under the scrutiny of the CGU (Brazilian Federal Comptroller General). The R$ 1,2 billion that Delta would still receive in ongoing contracts with the Union does not include payments withheld due to irregularities, such as the R$ 10,3 million in payments blocked in the R$ 85,7 million contract for the renovation of the remote passenger terminal at Cumbica Airport in São Paulo.
The injunction was determined by the internal control body of the Presidency of the Republic. The project's exemption from bidding was challenged by the courts and the Federal Audit Court (TCU). Built hastily, the remote terminal is still operating below capacity, a situation far from the air traffic chaos predicted by Infraero when it contracted Delta without bidding.
Irregularities such as overbilling and poor quality of work led to the withholding of payments totaling R$ 44,2 million by the Ministry of Transport, which were also not included in the total of R$ 1,2 billion in ongoing contracts that have not yet been disbursed by the Federal Government.
The construction company already had contracts worth R$ 843,5 million terminated this month by Petrobras for works at the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (Comperj). Petrobras cited "poor performance" by the construction company.
Prior to this, Delta had announced its withdrawal from the consortium responsible for the renovation of the Maracanã stadium, a World Cup project budgeted at over R$ 800 million. More recently, Delta abandoned the West-East Railway project, which is part of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) project portfolio.