Will Brazil miss the goal with 2014 World Cup?
Brazilians are concerned that mismanagement of the World Cup and the Olympics Games will squander the country's chance to build needed infrastructure and improve government.
Workers plant grass during renovations of the Mineirao Stadium for the 2014 World Cup in Belo Horizonte November 9.
Washington Alves/Reuters
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Brazil has had five years to ready itself for聽the 2014 World Cup and in that time officials have made the same two聽promises over and over.
鈥淭he event will have total transparency,鈥� said former President聽Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 鈥淲e are going to put on an unforgettable聽World Cup. That鈥檚 the commitment. You can hold us to it.鈥�
鈥淭here won鈥檛 be one cent of public money used to build stadiums,鈥澛燼dded his Sports Minister Orlando Silva.
With soccer鈥檚 biggest event less than 600 days away, those聽promises ring increasingly hollow. Nine of the 12 arenas are being聽built with public money and the three government websites set up to聽monitor costs and progress and provide information that is incomplete,聽contradictory, or out of date.
Brazilians are growing concerned that mismanagement of the World Cup, and the Olympics Games that follow, will squander the country's chance to build needed infrastructure and improve government in a nation that pays first world tax rates but gets third world services in return.
鈥淭he 12 host cities [of the World Cup] are not currently accountable,鈥� Paulo聽Itacarambi, Vice President of Brazilian transparency group Instituto聽Ethos, said last week at the 15th International Anti-Corruption聽Conference. 鈥淭his was supposed to be a moment of unity. This was an聽opportunity for mobilization.鈥�
A lot has gone right in Brazil in recent years. The economy of the fifth largest nation has expanded quickly in recent years, thanks聽largely to a growing domestic market and abundant natural resources. More聽than 30 million people have left poverty and joined the consuming聽middle classes. The hosting of the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in Rio de Jeneiro in 2016 were meant to showcase Brazil's arrival as a major player on the global stage.聽
What will be gained?
However, some Brazilians are starting to question if the government can live up to that lofty image and, if not, what exactly they will gain from the events other than a few weeks of fun.聽
That is particularly the case with the World Cup, which will聽take place in a dozen Brazilian cities over four weeks.聽Five years after Brazil was chosen to host the event, officials聽have yet to declare how much it will all cost.
The preliminary price tag was set at 27.1 billion reais (around聽$13.5 billion at today鈥檚 exchange rate), but does not include spending聽in sectors such as policing, telecommunications, and accommodation.
Officials claim there will be a dozen new stadiums and that they聽are all on schedule. Critics say almost all are over budget and are聽being built either with public money or government loans at聽preferential rates. At least four of them will be white elephants聽after the tournament, according to the government鈥檚 own Audits Court.
Infrastructure might not meet demand
Even more worrying is the promised improvements in transport聽infrastructure.
Authorities promised the World Cup would bring a widespread聽extension and modernization of metro lines, bus lanes, highways, and聽most crucially, airports.
Some 10,000 new cars are driven off auto dealer lots every聽day in Brazil. And the number of air travelers has jumped around 10聽percent each year since the middle of the last decade, according to聽Brazil鈥檚 civil aviation authority Anac.
Yet existing infrastructure has not been expanded to cope with the聽rise in demand and authorities are now acknowledging it might not.
Monorails or light rail lines in at least four cities are so far聽behind they are unlikely to be ready for the tournament, if at all.
鈥淲ithout doubt the biggest problems are with urban聽transportation,鈥� says Christopher Gaffney, an American professor of聽urbanism who lives in Rio and is studying World Cup and Olympics聽preparations.
Government officials point out they have established new systems聽of control and that old ones are working. For example, legislators in聽the southern state of Parana last week opened a congressional聽inquiry into alleged overbilling at the local stadium project. Other聽investigations are expected to follow.
Transparency, accountability debated
Officials also point to a increased transparency聽thanks to government websites聽that that monitor the progress of construction and where the money is聽being spent.聽The Brazilian Court of Audit also聽issues periodic reports.
鈥淭here are multiple systems of control,鈥� said Luis Fernandes, the聽executive secretary at the Sports Ministry. 鈥淚t is all passed on to聽the public.鈥�
Critics, though, say, the information they provide is suspect and聽complain a greater problem is accountability.
It is common for the World Cup organizing committee to refer聽questions to the football confederation who refer them to the Sports聽Ministry who refer them to the construction companies who refer them聽to the organizing committee.
鈥淲hile some of the initiatives are positive in the sense that聽they have at least something real in terms of allowing people to聽understand how this money is being spent, when it comes to who the聽checks are being given to and why, there is almost nothing,鈥� said聽Gaffney.