Our partner Thiago Araújo was featured in an article in the first issue of iNFRA Magazine, launched in September by Agência iNFRA, on the Secretariat for External Control, Consensual Resolution and Conflict Prevention (SecexConsenso), established by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) in late 2022.
The body aims to resolve disputes arising from public-private partnership contracts, some of which have been the subject of unresolved legal proceedings for more than three decades, through swift negotiations governed by robust governance standards. SecexConsenso estimates that it has already been responsible for unlocking at least R$70 billion in investment in motorways alone and for facilitating the settlement of legal and arbitration disputes totalling more than R$100 billion against the Federal Government.
Thiago recalls that the dominant paradigm in external oversight was shaped by a strictly formalist view of the principle of legality. “There was a series of concession contracts with structural modelling issues and a regulatory and cultural ‘mess’. There were few tools available to resolve them,” he says.
In this context, he says, the concept of the ‘zombie concession’ emerges: a situation in which a company in the pre-termination phase completely halts investment in the network or asset, whilst the public authorities are legally prevented from providing direct funding. The ‘user’, at the other end of the chain, remains exposed to substandard services: on motorways, for example, they pay tolls to use a deteriorated road network.