I'm working in construction in Malaysia and i expect pretty much the same thing from Brazil. People here just don't give a shit about timeliness especially when you are paying pittance for their work. Plus they always give stupid excuses for not coming, your painting is not done yet I'm not doing the windows, you haven't clear the shrubs, I'm not doing the water pipe. Then there are things like working as slow as possible if it's on an hourly or daily rate like hiring a truck.
You would think you could just go to the next contractor but nope they are all the fucking same. Fuck them all and fuck them hard.
Also not a big fan of Brazil with the World Cup, the players have to travel so far it's crazy. They should at least keep it around Rio.
Oh, private construction does work around here. It's not "oh my God, so fast!", but luxurious office and apartment buildings get done in a timely manner all the time. In my city they built this
gigantic mall in a one year. However, that's how long it's gonna take to add sewer pipes and pavement to
one unpaved street two blocks away from where I live. *If* everything goes according to the plans, that is.
The usual dance with public projects here goes like this:
1) The government (city, state or federal) opens a procurement with the specifications of the project. Depending on the project, a procurement will be made first to plan the project and a 2nd one to actually build it.
2) Planning and construction companies specialized on public projects will apply for the procurement. The intent is to have companies compete so the government can get a good deal. In reality, the companies collude among themselves so everyone overcharges by a lot, but one of them overcharges
less than the others. The winning company either subcontract the losing companies to do the job or the losing companies are outright shell companies secretly owned by the people behind the winning company.
3) When they cannot overcharge too wildly due to a Court of Audit breathing too closely to their necks, they'll resort to moving the project as slowly as possible as to try to force an emergency procurement when it becomes too obvious deadlines will not be met. This gives them a 2nd chance at overcharging and bribing people to look the other way while they do so.
Depending on how many involved people can get bribed, things can get into the ridiculous, like these: