Government spending on civil servants falls to lowest level in 26 years

After a policy of cost containment in the civil service, the Ministry of Economy expects to end the term of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) at the lowest level of spending on personnel in 26 years.

Figures presented by the team of Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) to the financial market recently show that this expense, which came to represent 4.2% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2017 and 2020, should fall to 3.4% at the end of 2022 — lowest level since 1997, when the National Treasury Secretariat’s historical series began.

The movement is accompanied by the lowest number of active employees, which ended June at the lowest level in the last 13 years after a drop of almost 10% under Bolsonaro’s administration. There are about 570,000 active servers, according to the Ministry of Economy.

When the president took over the Planalto Palace in January 2019, he inherited from his predecessor a staff of approximately 630,000 employees in federal public offices. In 2017, this number reached a peak of 634,000 assets.

The Ministry of Economy says that the drop in the number of servers was possible thanks to the advance of digitalization in the federal public administration. Today, around 4,800 services are available on the Gov.br platform.

Automation paves the way to reduce the replacement rate of retired employees, says the folder — “especially those who held mid-level and obsolete positions.”

“The workforce, previously used for many repetitive operational activities, has been directed to more strategic assignments, which value and guarantee an increasingly better service to citizens”, says the Ministry of Economy, in a note.

Guedes often says that a “silent administrative reform” is underway, after failing to approve a broader restructuring of the civil service sent by the Executive to Congress in the form of a PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) in 2021. One of the objectives of the text was to create new forms of employment contract between civil servants and public authorities to avoid stability.

Rudinei Marques, president of Fonacate (Permanent National Forum for Typical State Careers), contests the ministry’s positive view, saying that the number of civil servants has dropped by 12% since the early 1990s while the population has grown by 40% in the period. He says this demands more public services, especially in health and education — “as much as technologies can help”.

“In short, the economy came from the reduction in the quantity and quality of services taken to the population”, says Marques.

The Ministry of Economy says that the cut of functions and bonuses of the Federal Executive in 2019 also contributed to the reduction of personnel. per annum.

Mauro Silva, president of Unafisco (National Association of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue), recognizes that the performance of the State and the public service may undergo adjustments, but says that the lack of replacement of personnel can generate serious problems.

“At the Internal Revenue Service, we have a big problem in the fight against smuggling across borders. Customs control has been weakened and people are finding ways to [de burlar o controle]”, says Silva. “We have a lot of people retiring and there is no replacement. The idea that reducing civil servants is good only exists in the minds of those who do not value good state action”, he says.

He also says that specialized bodies such as the Internal Revenue Service can record such a fast pace in retirements that it is not possible to pass on the accumulated knowledge (for example, about the stock of tax credits and how they could be collected) to new generations of civil servants.

“If that is what it can be called a personnel policy, if it is done without criteria it ends up being harmful to the country”, he says. “This government has demonstrated that its only personnel policy is to massacre the server and put grenades in the server’s pocket”, says Silva.

Another factor for the drop in spending was the lack of readjustments for servers in recent years. The billions in extraordinary expenses foreseen at the time of the pandemic made Guedes articulate the approval of a legal device, sanctioned in May 2020, which prevented increases in the civil service until the end of 2021. The measure was supported by the minister’s view that the current generation would need to foot the bill for the war against the virus.

The legislation created at the time, whose main scope was to make the National Treasury help states and municipalities, also prohibited the public power from holding public tenders until the end of 2021 (except to replace vacancies in leadership positions that did not entail an increase in expenses, among other cases).

At a ministerial meeting in May 2020 with content released by the STF (Supreme Federal Court), Guedes compared the lock for servers to a “grenade in the enemy’s pocket” and even said that there would be no impeachment if the government’s accounts were in order.

“Everyone is thinking that so distracted, they hugged us, messed with us. We’ve already put the grenade in the enemy’s pocket. Two years without a salary increase”, he said. “This will give us peace of mind to go to the end. There’s no way to impeach him if we have the bills in order, everything is up to date. It’s over! There’s no way. There’s no way”, Guedes said in the episode.

Without a broad readjustment since 2018 (except categories with higher remuneration, which had a readjustment in 2019), servers saw the situation worsen with the pandemic. Even with pressure from various categories and the various promises made by Bolsonaro, there was no readjustment.

For 2023, the first year of the new presidential term, there is a reserve of BRL 11.7 billion in the LDO (Budget Guidelines Law) for this purpose. The government is studying using the projected inflation for 2023 as a reference for readjustments, as shown by the Sheet.

This month, Bolsonaro sanctioned the LDO, vetoing the proposal for a special readjustment for the careers of police officers and civil servants at Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency). Categories such as the Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police again complained through notes of repudiation and called the act “disrespect”.