Government is close to arrangement with TCU on railroads

The government should publish two decrees to give the state-owned company Valec legal conditions to be buyer and reseller of freight capacity in future railroad concessions.

According to the Minister of Transport César Borges, the decrees may be published later this week and meet a requirement of the Brazilian Court of Audit (TCU) to release the auction process for the concession of new railroads.

We are about to conclude negotiations with TCU, the minister said.

In the model proposed by the government, Valec will buy 100 percent of the freight capacity from the concessionaires that build new railroads and will resell it to companies interested in operating the trains.

However, when analyzing the modeling, TCU demanded that the government formulate a legal framework that gives Valec legal for the new role.
According to Borges, one of the decrees will allow Valec to buy and resell freight capacity. The other will reformulate the state-owned company, which should even change its name and be called Empresa Brasileira de Ferrovias.