TCU approves federal project and authorizes CODESA privatization

On December 8th, the federal audit court (TCU) approved the federal government’s project to privatize Companhia Docas do Espírito Santo  (CODESA) through the Ministry of Infrastructure, the first port privatization in Brazil’s history. With the decision, the expectation is that the invitation to bid will be released in the first half of January.

The concession contract will be valid for 35 years, extendable for another five years, and R$783 million in private investments are planned. The object of the contract encompasses the administration of the port and the indirect exploration of the facilities of the organized ports of Vitória and Barra do Riacho. The resolution prohibits direct exploration of the structures.

Before signing the concession contract, the chosen company will have to pay the amount offered in the concession auction to be promoted by the federal government and in which it won. The winner is whoever offers the highest value. “We learned a lot with the structuring of the CODESA project, which will serve as a model for the next projects”, said the Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas.

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Since the project was presented in August 2021, several meetings have taken place between the technical teams of the Ministry of Infrastructure, CODESA, BNDES (national development bank), ANTAQ (the national waterway transport agency), and the TCU. The objective was to help the Court’s technicians better understand the proposed model and rules, as well as to clarify any doubts.

The TCU team carried out specific steps to clarify the privatization proposal. Opportunities to improve the modeling were identified. The suggestions were gradually incorporated into the model and presented to the court technicians as the discussions on the topic evolved.

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