Road Work
This article was originally published in Joe Blog Dirceu, on 30/09/10, but is very current, according to an article published yesterday (10/11/10) in the newspaper O Globo. I made some adjustments but the essence is the same.
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basis of that article the following statements and judgments;
a) It is not necessary and, instead, is ineffective, the stoppage of public works for the strategic country. If the aim is to make the work has an appropriate cost within the constitutional principles, there are other penalties that can punish those who should be punished, and even replace the contract axes. In this case, in addition to resume reasonable standards in public administration, not to penalize users by region and country, with the postponement of vital works for them.
b) The other party - who is interested in the strike? - Can only have two responses. The most obvious is the "nobody", as explained above. The more Machiavellian is "interested in who wants the government can not politically capitalize the benefits generated by them."
c) even less interested employees (and their families) who will be fired en masse, with the paralysis of major works such as those mentioned in recent reports by the TCU, a very special moment of resumption of vigorous economic growth and social Brazil.
Let the grounds.
The Court of Audit - TCU is an advisory body to Congress in one of his main responsibilities is to supervise the executive branch. The staff headcount TCU is the highest level approved in contests considered the toughest in the country. TCU therefore has an effective framework on which few questions were pointless.
Reports TCU, sent to Congress for approval, are often tools used by the media for sharp criticism from the government in office, in this case, the President Lula. So far as we are not naïve to think that the media is impartial, is also part of the game. One of
aspects that shows a certain misrepresentation of information is that TCU does not indicate irregularities, but "indications of irregularities." However, reports in the press report that way, as The Globe yesterday, in the lead on page 10.
"The Court of Audit (TCU) today recommended that 32 works that receive federal funds to be halted because they had serious irregularities "
As such, the question that needs answering is: why and Who is the paralysis of strategic work for the country?
not want to discuss if TCU is right or wrong in making value judgments that irregularities occurred or even that there are strong indications of irregularities. I am assuming that the judgments are well reasoned and make sense. What I question is whether it makes sense, or rather whether it is better to paralyze the country a strategic work in progress, or if there were other forms of direct penalties on directors and companies that do not involve executing at a high cost for the country.
President Lula is right to question this point, in terms of today's O Globo. A great work to be stopped (and we have numerous examples in the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso) has its first impact to prevent the benefits that these works would bring - for users and for developing regional and national - be postponed to who knows when. There are cases of suspended works, such as duplication of roads, which extended the misfortunes and increased transportation costs of thousands of users for more than five years.
The second impact relates to the substantial increase of the final cost of the work. This is the paradox that the TCU need fix: the correct order to prevent harm resulting from overbillings and over-pricing, which would increase the final cost of the work, ends up producing the same evil, only on a much higher level, which is increase the final cost of the work. That's because demobilize and re-mobilize a "work in addition to that a very high cost.
Not to mention that, in cases of road works, you lose a big part of that done because, as the works were not completed to protect the infrastructure from the effects climate (rain in particular) as the final finish and drainage, to resume work, many of these services need to be redone, adding that more then rework costs.
reiterate: to fight evil, it produces an even greater evil .
Anyway, I hope to have reasoned that it makes no sense at the proposed strike works, or for alleged irregularities detected.
I think that the country expects the Congress to be wise and forward the necessary and sufficient punishment for the irregularities or evidence of irregularities to be corrected without affecting the Brazilian people, especially workers who are laid off.
José Augusto Valente is Technical Director of T1
