Pará government spends almost half a billion on delayed BRT work; Odebrecht got R$153 million

Paula Litaiff – From Cenarium Amazon Magazine

BELÉM (PA) – The government of Pará has spent R$ 423.7 million on the Metropolitan Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a project to upgrade the BR-316 highway and integrate public transportation in the Belém Metropolitan Region. The amount represents 88.6% of the planned budget, which currently stands at R$ 478.1 million. The data was collected by CENARIUM AMAZON MAGAZINE from the Transparency Portal.

Construction began in 2019, with a completion deadline of 19 months, under the contract initially signed with Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção Internacional S.A., the target of Operation ‘Lava Jato’ (Car Wash), which received R$ 153 million from the Pará government.

The inauguration deadline was set for August 2020, then it was moved to the first half of 2023 and today there is no specific completion date. In June of this year, the Government of Pará informed CENARIUM that the current forecast is for the second half of 2024, without defining a date or month.

On a visit to the BRT construction site in Belém on February 9, 2022, governor Helder Barbalho (MDB) promised to deliver the work in the first half of 2023, which did not happen. The governor’s visit was accompanied by engineer Eduardo Ribeiro, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Management Center (NGTM).

“The governor listened to the explanation of the recovery plan for the works schedule, and our expectation is that by the end of June we will have completed the stages. The final deadline for the start of the system’s operation is March 2023, with all the work up and running, including the part of the systems that will support the operation of the buses”, Mr. Ribeiro said at the time.

Data from the Transparency Portal shows that Mr. Helder Barbalho’s administration has only 11.6% of the Metropolitan BRT budget to complete the work, equivalent to R$ 54 million. You only have to drive along the BR-316 highway to realize that not only 11.6% of the project remains to be completed. The project covers the first 10.8 kilometers of the BR-316.

In addition to the implementation of the Bus Trunk System, there are also plans for drainage, landscaping and lighting of the highway; the construction of an operational control center, which will operate the system; 22 kilometers of cycle path; two integration terminals, one in Ananindeua and the other in Marituba; and 13 footbridges along the highway.

On checking the progress of the BRT works, the CENARIUM report noted that, of the entire project, only four footbridges were ready and handed over to the population. Not a single kilometer of cycle path has been built, drainage is still being carried out, landscaping hasn’t even begun, none of the terminals have been finished and the bus stops are just concrete accumulating garbage.

The work, which began in 2019, is being carried out by the Metropolitan Transport Management Center (NGTM), a body linked to the state government, and is currently being operated by the Grande Belém Mobility Consortium, made up of the companies Construtora Marquise and Comsa S.A. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is financing 78% of the project, while the remaining 22% comes from the state treasury.

Odebrecht Engineering

In 2018, the government of Pará paid R$ 38 million to Odebrecht Engenharia, the company that won the tender in 2017, to start work that only began in 2019. The company was the target of a Federal Police (PF) operation in 2014 for criminal association and money laundering, when its chief executive, Marcelo Odebrecht, was arrested on charges of paying bribes to public officials.

In 2020, Odebrecht received another R$ 19 million from the Pará government, and in 2020, R$ 67 million. In 2021, the construction company received a further R$ 29 million, totaling R$ 153 million, and left the project, according to CENARIUM‘s report, because it disagreed with the Pará government on aspects of the project’s execution.

In Odebrecht’s place, the Grande Belém Mobility Consortium took over – the second-placed bidder – which began work in October 2021, when it received R$ 47 million that year. In 2022, it received R$ 84 million; and from January of this year until September 30, the state made the largest financial transfer since the work began: R$ 141 million.

BRT and the COP

It’s not just the budget that’s tight for the government of Pará, but also time. The highway is the main gateway to and from Belém, which will host the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in November 2025, one of the world’s major events.

In June of this year, the Government of Pará informed CENARIUM of the current forecast for the end of construction: in the second half of 2024. According to the Metropolitan Transport Management Center, issues such as the Covid-19 health crisis, a change in the company responsible for the work and the project’s execution methodology are the reasons for the postponement.

Traffic chaos

Tired of waiting so long for the work to be finished, university student Viviane Damasceno, 21, says she travels the highway every day from Marituba to the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), in Belém, on a journey that, according to her, takes an average of 2h30 because of the traffic jams caused by the unfinished works.

“Honestly, the years go by and the traffic doesn’t seem to get any better. More hours spent on buses, more stress for drivers, passengers and workers who have to use the BR-316 every day. The budget may be almost over, but the work seems far from over”, the student complains.

Public servant Elayne Luz, 45, a resident of Ananindeua, also believes that, with the state budget, the BRT project is not close to completion either. For her, the project should have been carried out differently in order to cause less inconvenience to the population.

“The work has extended over many kilometers, but they haven’t finished any of it so far. I don’t understand why it hasn’t been carried out section by section, thus alleviating all this inconvenience not only for those who live in the surrounding area, but for everyone coming in and out of our city. It’s desperate that there’s no set time for this work to be finished and, for sure, this 11% budget won’t finish it”, says Elayne.

Read more: Pará government postpones delivery of Metropolitan BRT once again

Edited by Jefferson Ramos
Reviewed by Adriana Gonzaga