A quick note to draw your attention to an interesting piece over on inter press service about how “Megaprojects” can ‘Destroy Reputations in Brazil’ (and, one imagines, by extension, anywhere else).

It covers last year’s Petrobras scandal, after which - in the words of the article - “the company lost credibility on an international level [and] its image has been badly stained” and makes wider points about corruption and capacity gaps make megaprojects particularly high-risk in Brazil.

Specific projects to come under fire include the Abreu e Lima Refinery in Northeast Brazil and the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (COMPERJ), but the conclusion is wider and concerns most projects of this scope in the country, the majority of which, it argues, “are several years behind schedule.”

Attribution for this includes “resistance from indigenous communities and some environmental authorities”, along with labour strikes and protests – another testimony perhaps to the real world value of getting your community relations right even for the biggest and boldest of projects and actors.

Read the piece in full here.

ENDS

https://www.ipsnews.net/2015/05/megaprojects-can-destroy-reputations-in-b...
https://www.businessinsider.com/afp-scandal-hit-petrobras-first-quarter-r...