Delay in highway concessions in PR becomes advertising one year after the election

The federal and Paraná governments were unable to sign new concession contracts for highways in the so-called “integration ring” of the state, leaving the roads without private managers. The concessions were signed in 1997 and expired at the end of November. The delay, however, turned into propaganda for the administration of Governor Ratinho Júnior (PSD) less than a year before the election.

With the end of the old contracts, toll collection was suspended on the main highways of Paraná until new concessionaires take over the highways. After the gates were opened, the state government installed billboards at toll plazas announcing the “end of unfair pricing” toll fees.

Announcements about the end of concessions and the release for free traffic were also shown on television channels and social networks.

According to the auction schedule, which will define new highway administrators, the contracts for the new concessions should only be signed in the third quarter of 2022. The projection, however, is subject to change, as the project to transfer the highways to the private sector is still need to comply with formalities, such as going through the analysis of the TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union). The procedure has no end date.

This means that, in practice, it is very unlikely that people from Paraná will pay tolls again before October of next year, the month in which the first and second round of elections will take place. Governor Ratinho Júnior must run for re-election.

“In politics, there is no coincidence,” stated state deputy Arilson Chiorato (PT), coordinator of the Parliamentary Front on Tolls in Alep (Legislative Assembly of Paraná). “The governor was incompetent to auction the concessions before the contracts expired and is electorally benefiting from the delay.”

In August 2019, the government of Paraná and the federal government formalized, in a memorandum, the intention to carry out a new auction of highways in the state, which would adopt a new competition model, yet to be established. This model was only presented to state deputies in February of this year – that is, a year and a half later. The proposed model provided for a limit for discounts on toll fees and faced resistance from politicians and businessmen.

In the virtual public hearing held by ANTT (National Land Transport Agency) that debated the proposal, more than 6,000 manifestations were registered – a record in the agency’s history for this type of manifestation.

The pressure made the government change the concession model. In August of this year, it was announced that the auction will include companies that undertake to maintain the highways and carry out the necessary works, charging the lowest toll tariff.

“But then there was no more time for auctioning before the end of the contracts”, added Chiorato. “The government then decided to hold this until after the election.”

State deputy Jorge Brand, better known as Goura (PDT), also assesses that Ratinho Júnior makes electoral use of the delay, with the support of President Jair Bolsonaro (no party), who will also run for reelection. Governor and President of the Republic are political allies. Goura recalls that, months before the 1998 election, then-governor Jaime Lerner ordered a 50% reduction in tolls. He was reelected.

“History repeats itself. Governor Ratinho treats the end of the contracts as the ‘day of deliverance’, but he has already decided that he will grant the highways again,” stated Goura.

For Deputy Luiz Claudio Romanelli (PSB), the delay in the concession of the highways is the fault of the federal government, formally responsible for the auction. Romanelli, who was once the government leader in Alep, does not believe that this delay was deliberate.

He also said that the eventual electoral gains of Ratinho Júnior and Bolsonaro will depend on how the highways will be maintained by the government until the new concession. “If the government is not able to do what is necessary, this could become a problem.”

The new round of road concessions in Paraná is the largest project of its kind ever announced in Brazil. It involves the auction of 3,300 km of federal and state roads.

The winning companies will have to invest R$43 billion in improvements over ten years. This amount will cover, among other things, the duplication of 1,700 kilometers of roads.

Apart from the investment, another R$ 35 billion will be spent by the concessionaires for the maintenance and operation of the highways during the 30-year contract.

When contacted, the government of Paraná did not say how much it spent on advertisements about the end of the concessions. He declared that “it is the duty of the public administration to inform road users of the end of contracts” and that the objective of the advertising campaign is to guarantee safety and provide guidance on emergency care.

The government also informed that, despite having participated in defining the model for the new concession, it is federal. It is, therefore, the federal government who took the auction proposal for consideration by the TCU, the last step before the bidding process.

The Ministry of Infrastructure informed that the concession plan for the Paraná road network followed the rite, with transparency and record popular participation. He recalled that the public hearing, which was held virtually due to the pandemic, had to be postponed due to the amount of contributions received.

ANTT informed that, due to the volume of suggestions, the analysis of their incorporation into the concession project took longer than initially planned.

The agency highlighted that other concession renegotiations carried out by the federal government have already been carried out after the end of the old contracts.

In the case of the Presidente Dutra highway, for example, the agreement with the former concessionaire was extended to continue providing services and charging tolls until a new contract enters into force. “However, in the case of Paraná, in which the contracts were of state competence, the state chose not to extend them”, declared ANTT.