JUE 28 DE MARZO DE 2024 - 15:31hs.
Bidding will not be in the 1st quarter

LOTEX's concession is delayed again in Brazil

The process of granting the Brazilian Instant Lottery is stopped and, for the second time, the expected time should be modified. The Union Court of Audit (TCU) deeply analyzed the issue and pointed out differences at various points in the alignment of privatization. BNDES and SEAE should answer these doubts. This delay will lead to the bidding for the second quarter of this year.

The privatization of LOTEX is being conducted by BNDES, with the coordination and monitoring of the Ministry of Finance, through the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring (SEAE) and monitoring of the Federal Audit Court and the Ministry of Transparency, Inspection and Controllership of the Union (CGU).

Although the points of disagreement are still unknown, it is worth remembering that last October at the request of the interested companies it was decided to reduce the term of concession and the value of the grant.

According to Mansueto Almeida, the Ministry of Finance's secretary of Economic Monitoring, the change in the concession period, from 25 to 15 years, caused the auction to return to the original model proposed by BNDES and the EY / Moyses & Pires / Zancan consortium, with a grant of R$514 million US$158m). For the previous term of 25 years, the minimum amount of the grant was R$922 million (US$284m).

At the beginning of the LOTEX concession process, the tender was estimated for December 2017. Then, a first delay forced it to move it to the 1st quarter of this year and once again the deadline can not be fulfilled and the perspective is that it occurs in the second quarter of 2018.

In the TCU, an organ of constitutional stature that assists the National Congress in the mission of exercising external control, the LOTEX process has Minister Aroldo Cedraz as rapporteur since January 1, 2017 and the technical unit responsible is SECEX-RJ (Secretariat of External Control in the State of Rio de Janeiro).

In addition to this problem with TCU, LOTEX's bidding process faces another issue. State lotteries are struggling in court for the right to also be able to offer instant lotteries among their products by stating that the Union has no right to a lottery monopoly and can not promise this to potential foreign investors, as in the LOTEX project that promises the winner exclusivity in the exploration of the activity in the whole country.

The representatives of the State Lotteries argue that without this product they may end up harming various social service institutions, eliminating jobs, among other aspects that are linked to State Lotteries.

Source: GMB