The Prosecution Office of the State of Mato Grosso has promised to look into the denouncements of adulteration of the technical statement that consolidated the proposal for a Light Rail System in Cuiabá. By means of prosecutor Clóvis de Almeida Júnior, this Office also informs that, should the irregularities raised by the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper be confirmed, then the Office will have the authority to embargo the most important public transport project in the city of Cuiabá, in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup™.
Yesterday (November 24th), Mr. Almeida Júnior said that he will be stepping up the investigations. “We have a civil inquest to analyze the appropriateness of this transport system. Our responsibility is that of checking the degree of jeopardy of the project as a result of this news about a change to the technical statement.”
The controversy erupted after the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper informed that the document which consolidated the replacement of the Bus Rapid Transit system by light rail could have been forged by the Director for Urban Mobility of the Ministry for Cities, Luiza Gomide Vianna, with the approval of Minister Mário Negromonte.
In the opinion of the prosecutor, the haste to change the transport modal in time for the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ caused what he calls a “lack of synchronism” between the state and federal Governments and the Ministry for Cities. “This haste in carrying out a work project causes problems. What is happening now is a result of this haste”, he says.
Mr. Almeida Júnior also says that, if it was up to the State Prosecution Office, then the work on the light rail system would be separate from the mobility package for the World Cup, so the Government could carry out this project as an independent project, with an easier time frame”.
He also feels that the structuring work, such as the doubling and widening of roads and also the installation of trenches and viaducts, would already be enough to improve the general situation of mobility in Cuiabá. “This alone would be a major relief for the local traffic”, he adds.
The Prosecutor, who is active in the defense of public heritage, has the support of prosecutor Thiago Lemos who, being part of the Federal Prosecution Office, could also investigate the participation of the Ministry for Cities in this episode.
A similar move was taken yesterday by the Prosecutor of the Republic, Paulo Roberto Galvão, who is a member of the work group of the Prosecution Office which is monitoring the work for the World Cup. Mr. Galvão will investigate whether there has been any harm caused to public assets in this change of transport modal. This investigation has already been opened, at the Prosecution Office of the Federal District.
Empty Opinions
Putting new coals on the conflagration which ignited with the tip-offs from the “O Estado de São Paulo”, the director of urban mobility of the Ministry for Cities, Luiza Gomide Vianna, declared that the technical opinion statement contrary to the implementation of a light rail system was changed because the “analysis made by Higor Guerra (the technician responsible for the analysis) was just a personal opinion of his and was also full of empty opinions without solid grounds (please read more).
Approached, the Secretariat for the World Cup in the state of Mato Grosso declined to make a statement, saying that they would follow the position taken by the State Government and also Governor Silval Barbosa, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), about this issue. Even so, the State organization has kept the time frame for the delivery of the Light Rail system project for December, and promises to start the work by March 2012.
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04/05 | News
