Figueiredo loses his status of transport ‘captain’

In less than a year, the CEO of EPL (Empresa de Planejamento e Logística), Bernardo Figueiredo, lost his position of the almighty of transport and was shelved by Dilma Rousseff.
Figueiredo no longer participates in industry’s sensitive decisions, and his positions on transport are being ed over by the Treasury Secretary Arno Augustin.
Behind the scenes, the Treasury chief says Figueiredo defends the interests of businessmen. The CEO of EPL says Augustin sabotages the President’s decisions, thus hindering the concession program of more than $89.46 billion announced in 2012.
Businessmen of the transport industry consider Figueiredo authoritarian. However, negotiations with Augustin have been more difficult. Businessmen interviewed by Folha complain about the ideological bias of the Secretary, and how these positions may drive away investors, especially foreign ones, from business.
 A businessman told Folha that Augustin is gaining disputes in government, but this will affect future auctions of concessions. According to him, the competition will end up decreasing or even not existing.
Figueiredo was strengthened after being protagonist of Dilma Rousseff’s first defeat in Congress. In early 2012, his name was vetoed by the Senate to continue in charge of the National Land Transport Agency (ANTT – Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres). That was the first retaliation against the president from the government coalition.
Six months after the veto, Dilma appointed him as CEO of EPL, which became a kind of substitute for the Ministry of Transport in the organization and planning of the industry.
Since the negotiation for the provisional measure of the Ports in 2012, Figueiredo was losing space in government. He defended points asked by businessmen of the industry and a simpler change that does not involve the Congress.
Dilma preferred the positions of greater intervention defended by Augustin and the former executive secretary of the Civil House Beto Vasconcelos. Figueiredo did not even attend the final meetings on the package.
Bullet Train
Now the CEO of EPL also lost the dispute to increase the profitability of the bullet train project.
He negotiated with transport companies interested in a return rate of around 8%. The intention was to attract financial companies to help form the capital of $536.8 million required to start the business.
However, the Treasury Secretary said that the rate of 8% was not necessary for the bullet train because the government is a partner of the project. He defined it in 7%, and now the interested parties no longer hope to have more financial companies in the business.
Figueiredo is out even of the discussion of railroad businessmen with the government for the return of stretches of São Paulo’s Ferroanel, the most important railroad project of the government and that is quite late already. The current concessionaires are now discussing the issue with the Treasury Secretary.
Augustin belongs to the Socialist Democracy, one of the currents of the PT (Brazilian Workers’ Party), the same as the former governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Olívio Dutra. When Dutra took office, he changed concessions and did not fulfill agreements. In the Federal Government, the interventionist bias is attributed to Augustin, then in the Department of Finance.