Federal Deputy Sílvio Torres, a member of Brazil's Sub-commission supervising the 2014 World Cup, has called for much greater transparency from the Federal Government and Local Organising Committee (LOC) following a recent tour to South Africa to inspect preparations for the 2010 event. The sub-commission, set up in June this year by the country’s Chamber of Deputies, is aiming to follow and report on all public spending on the Cup as closely as possible to ensure all decisions and decision makers are held to account.
Torres commented this week that, unlike the 2010 LOC, which he described as democratic and rightly consisting of representatives from a wide range of relevant sectors, Brazil’s 2014 LOC is essentially a ‘private’ body with a very centralised structure that doesn’t feel the need to justify its decisions to anybody. Going further, he pointed out that, given the 2014 LOC is essentially under the auspices of the Brazilian Football Federation, and with Ricardo Teixeira heading both bodies, it is not advisable to give the Committee so much freedom and decision making power in light of the current state of the Brazilian football league.
Torres recommends creating an intergovernmental executive committee incorporating various ministers and sectors to oversee all decisions relating to the Cup.
The comments come as Torres presides over this week´s launch of a new website aimed at publishing details of all public spending, works, and tenders involving Cup projects. Established by the National Congress upon prompting by Torres himself, the ‘Network of Supervision and Control of The 2014 Cup’ will attempt to overcome the 2014 LOC’s lack of transparency to this point and will also be used for Rio 2016 projects.