The largest Brazilian construction companies were accused of rigging the procurements run by Petrobras. The Brazilian Court of Audits (TCU) estimated the damages caused to Petrobras by the alleged conduct and is pursuing compensation.
Evaristo Pinheiro (former Head of Sinicon, the construction companies’ association) approached Marcio de Oliveira to prepare a report about TCU’s damages estimates. Although it was not possible to replicate TCU’s estimates, as it did not grant Marcio access to its database, the report pointed to a possible omitted-variable bias in TCU’s regressions.
TCU has not ruled on the matter yet. Sinicon’s counsel is pursuing access to TCU’s database to replicate the estimates.
