Analysis of contractual amendments in public constructions in the state of Minas Gerais

Abstract

The high demand for infrastructure in Brazil and the advancement of technological resources in construction industry generated an increase of projects complexity. Consequently, contractual amendments become recurrent in public constructions. Thus, the present paper aims to present a panorama of the engineering contracts signed by the State of Minas Gerais, as well as to show a case study of revitalization in Belo Horizonte/MG. For this purpose, 32 engineering public contracts in the last two years were analyzed, considering the amendments of costs and terms of those contracts. In particular, the case study showed that the mentioned construction work had several contractual amendments due to insufficiency and incompatibilities of projects. Moreover, the undersized contractual plan may be a consequence of divergent data and financial resources that compromised the estimation of the overall cost. However, despite the constant use of this tool in public contracts, it is understood that contractual amendments are still an important mechanism that allows the execution of construction works. This even in the absence of project specifications and adequate planning before the implementation of public enterprises.