TCU suspends construction of the shameful subway project.
After the celebration and extensive media coverage of the transfer of the subway's "assets" from the City Hall to the State, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) found new irregularities in the implementation of the Salvador subway and suspended the system's construction. It also maintained a precautionary measure preventing the Salvador Transportation Company (CTS) from accepting, either provisionally or definitively, the works for the subway system's implementation; there is already water infiltration in the tunnel of the so-called "section 1" despite it never being used, and there are "serious" discrepancies between the projects and costs of section 2, among other irregularities.
Bahia 247
If Governor Jaques Wagner (PT) managed to cheer up any Salvador residents with his promise to finish and put the Salvador metro into service, that enthusiasm has just vanished.
Built 14 years ago at a declared cost of approximately R$ 1,2 billion, the 12-kilometer transportation system (divided into two stages) remains, in practice, without any prospect of serving the more than one million users of Salvador's failed and filthy public transportation system, which consists mainly of uncomfortable and always overcrowded buses.
After the celebration and extensive media coverage of the transfer of the subway's "assets" from the City Hall to the State, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) found new irregularities in the implementation of the shameful Salvador subway and suspended the system's construction, maintaining, with corrections, the precautionary measure preventing the Salvador Transport Company (CTS) from accepting, provisionally or definitively, the subway system implementation works announced by the governor.
The decision to maintain the precautionary measure adopted in 2012 was made after the TCU (Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts) monitored the project for the seventh time and verified that previously detected issues had not been fully resolved.
Among the detected flaws, there are water infiltrations in the underground roadway of the so-called section 1, which runs from Lapa Station to Acesso Norte (Rótula do Abacaxi). Section 2 (from Rótula to Pirajá Station) presents discrepancies between physical and financial execution.
The section is unfinished and there is still no assessment of usable services. The non-existent or unusable portions of the work cannot be accepted by the administration. Furthermore, there are problems with guarantees for the execution of the contract and the release of payments.
The TCU (Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts) has ordered a hearing with CTS and the companies responsible for the construction of the Salvador metro to obtain their statements regarding the issuance of the completion certificate for the underground track and a solution for the water infiltration observed in the tunnel of section 1.
The certificate issued in 2012 may be annulled due to the inadequacy of the technical solution adopted. CTS must also take steps to rectify the letters of guarantee used as collateral for the release of payments and execution of the contract.
A copy of the case documentation was sent to the public prosecutor's office in the state of Bahia, to the mayor of the city of Salvador, to the Civil House of the Government of the State of Bahia, and to the Attorney General's Office of the State of Bahia. The rapporteur for the case is Deputy Minister Augusto Sherman Cavalcanti.