Signor, R; Love, P E D and Olatunji, O (2016) Determining overpricing in Brazilian infrastructure projects: A forensic approach. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 142(9): 06016001, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Corruption has become an innate feature of Brazil's construction industry, particularly the procurement of infrastructure projects. Consequently, the Brazilian Federal Police are actively pursuing individuals and companies who are engaged with corruptive practices, particularly overpricing. To address the issue of overpricing in infrastructure projects, this paper describes the current method used by the Brazilian Federal Police and presents a probabilistic approach that is deemed to be a more reliable approach for determining its occurrence. This paper provides legal fraternities in other developing countries facing similar problems with additional support to ensure convictions for overpricing are pursued. Limitations of the current method and future research toward the development of a probabilistic method are identified.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Brazil; building materials; corruption; cost and schedule; forensics cost estimating; overpricing |
| Index terms: | developing country, cost estimating, Brazil, corruption, building material, infrastructure project, construction industry |
| Subjects: | Geography, development economics, professional ethics, infrastructure and transport systems, industry analysis, financial and cost management, building materials |
| Topics: | International Construction, Legal Issues, Design Practice, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Cost Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here