Guedes says he never cursed servers and asks for support for administrative reform

Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) denied this Wednesday (24) that he had cursed public servants and asked for support from the category for the approval of the administrative reform, a government proposal that creates more flexible employment relationship regimes with the State and establishes assessments of performance.

In a speech at the opening of a virtual seminar of the Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Economy, Guedes recalled the episode in which he compared the figure of a civil servant and that of a parasite.

“I was giving a speech about the need to control the expenses of the entities of the sub-federative units [estados e municípios]. There are hundreds of municipalities that cannot even pay their own payroll […]. And I said that this is like a unit that is becoming parasitic,” he said on Wednesday.

“And in memory [das pessoas ficou que estava] cursing public officials. I never cursed, my mother was a civil servant all her life, she is 99 years old. I’m experiencing interaction with extraordinary people [do serviço público]”, he said.

In February 2020, Guedes stated that the government, even “broken”, is obliged to increase its servers. “The civil service had an increase of 50% above inflation, in addition to having career stability and generous retirement. The host is dying, the guy has become a parasite,” he said, defending the end of automatic adjustments.

Currently, the servers are with readjustments frozen as a counterpart within the package that, during the pandemic, expanded the release of resources for the most vulnerable.

President Jair Bolsonaro (non-party) said he intends to give increases next year, but there is no room in the Budget because of the spending ceiling — even with the expansion to be generated by the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatory orders.

Meanwhile, Guedes tries to encourage the idea of ​​advancing administrative reform. But among the government’s own allies there is resistance.

“We proposed an administrative reform without taking any rights from the current public service,” Guedes said on Wednesday (24). “I ask for support from our civil servants because we are talking about modernization of the public service, digitization, greater productivity and meritocracy,” he said.

The government has little time to approve an administrative reform, while the main attention at the moment is turned to the PEC dos Precatórios. Next year should be taken by the electoral scenario. Bolsonaro himself has already stated that, if the proposal is not approved in 2021, it will remain for whoever wins the next presidential elections.

On the 16th, the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, stated that the administrative reform is ready to be considered in plenary, but said that the government needs to be mobilized. “Minister Paulo Guedes, in his own speech, has to mobilize the government so that the government can mobilize whether or not it wants to help with the administrative reform,” said Lira.

“For now, that’s what I’ve been saying. I don’t see either the organized civil society or the government a willingness to tackle this issue now,” said Lira. According to him, whether or not everyone likes it, the reform needs mobilization to go ahead.