Guedes says that the surroundings of Bolsonaro barred administrative reform

Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) said this Thursday (2) that the surroundings of President Jair Bolsonaro blocked the progress of the administrative reform, which changes rules for public servants.

“A [reforma] administrative I delivered to the Executive and the president’s surroundings blocked it, it didn’t let her walk at first. Then he came to Covid and shuffled everything up,” he said in a webinar on civil service reform.

The reform was originally scheduled to be delivered after the conclusion of the Social Security reform, approved in 2019, but was postponed by government decision until September 2020 – when it was finally sent to Congress (and has not yet been approved).

The rapporteur of the reform, Deputy Arthur Maia (DEM-BA), stated at the seminar that he does not see the government’s commitment to the issue and does not see the proposal moving forward in 2022. Recently, the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), said that he does not see the Executives willingness to approve the proposal.

Guedes stated that the greatest enemy of the Republic today is the lack of control over public spending and that, for this reason, he decided to attack the three main government expenditures – Social Security, debt interest and civil servants.

According to him, the administrative reform was “smooth, dehydrated and generous” with the current civil service. The text does not significantly interfere with the rights of current servers (such as stability).

The reform would save BRL 300 billion in ten years, said Guedes, and the number could be even higher if the lower rate of replacement of vacancies arising from the retirement of civil servants is considered – a movement that, according to him, has benefited from the digitization of government services.

For him, civil servants would have to work longer before earning the right to tenure and, after that, they would have to spend more time on active duty before retiring.

Guedes also commented on the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatório, which circumvents the spending ceiling. He says that he liked the initial version better, which was designed by the minister of TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union) Bruno Dantas, but that the proposal ended up being changed until it was approved in the Senate — for him, the updated version is a “lesser evil” and its objective is not to “make the Republic unviable”.

During the virtual seminar, Guedes also jokingly told Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), that he was not invited to the Legal Forum of Lisbon – which took place in November.

The event in Portugal was organized by the IDP (Brazilian Institute of Education, Development and Research), which has Gilmar as a partner. The STF minister participated in the seminar with Guedes this Thursday.

“Sorry I stretched [nas declarações]. I stay here in this hole being stoned, getting beaten up all day in a row, I don’t have time to go there, I’m not even invited to our brilliant panel in Lisbon. Suddenly I’m given ten minutes and a microphone, and I get lost. Sorry,” said Guedes.

Gilmar, who was following the speech virtually, did not immediately respond to the comments. The event continued with statements from other participants.

Report from sheet published in November showed that public coffers covered the expenses of at least 25 authorities for them to participate in the event in Portugal.

Together, the expenses with plane tickets, per diems and insurance exceed R$ 500 thousand for ministers of the Executive, of the TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union), presidents of regulatory agencies, congressmen and their spouses, in addition to public servants.