Synonymous with corruption, Valec will be shut down.
"The image is tarnished. If any foreign company does a simple internet search, they will find several negative pieces of information about Valec, and that's not good at all," said the Minister of Transport, César Borges; wrongdoing in the construction of the North-South Railway decisively contributed to damaging the company's image, at the time under the command of Juquinha das Neves, arrested in Operation Trem Pagador; a provisional measure issued by the federal government will create the Brazilian Railway Company (EBF) to assume the assets and liabilities of the state-owned company; according to the minister, the changes are not only the result of structural changes and have a strategic character to enable better market positioning.
247 - The Minister of Transport, César Borges, confirms information that Valec, the state-owned company responsible for the construction of railways such as the North-South Railway and the West-East Integration Railway (FIOL), which connects western Bahia to the port of Ilhéus, will be "restructured." A provisional measure issued by the federal government will extinguish Valec and create the Brazilian Railway Company (EBF) to assume the assets and liabilities of the state-owned company.
"The image is tarnished. If any foreign company does a simple internet search, they will find several negative pieces of information about Valec, and that's not good at all," the minister said in an article in the Tribuna da Bahia newspaper.
Much of the damage to Valec's image can be attributed to the management of former president Juquinha das Neves, arrested in Operation Trem Pagador by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office and Federal Police, suspected of embezzling at least R$ 60 million from the construction of the North-South Railway, which crosses Goiás and has been dragging on for almost three decades.
In the unfinished sections of the Northern Railway, the Federal Court of Accounts found several irregularities, the most recent of which were not even the subject of the Operation Paying Train investigations. Among the illegalities are flaws in the execution of the projects and payments for sections that were never even started. It is estimated that, between corruption and shoddy workmanship, the cost of the railway will have to be increased by R$ 400 million.
The minister assured that the changes will not alter the schedules of ongoing works or railway tenders – the first auction of the package, which includes 10 kilometers of railways, is scheduled to take place on October 18 and involves the stretch between Açailândia, in Maranhão, and Barcarena, in Pará.
The role of the new EBF will be to operate a national railway system, institutionalizing the expectations of the Presidential Palace for the company, which currently only operates in the construction of track infrastructure.
The new model stipulates that the right of way on the new railways that will operate belongs to the state-owned company, which can then resell it to freight transport companies. Currently, Valec builds the tracks and transfers their administration – along with the right of way – to a concessionaire chosen through a bidding process.
Despite the intended changes, the date for the provisional measure to be published by the federal government has not yet been defined. Minister César Borges says that the changes at Valec are not solely the result of structural changes and are strategic in nature, aimed at enabling a better market position for the company following financial scandals that even led to the imprisonment of a former president.