Government increases the limit of successful candidates in public tenders

President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) published a decree this Tuesday (27) increasing the limit of candidates who can be approved in public tenders with more than one stage.

The decision, published in the DOU (Official Journal of the Union), will take effect from this Tuesday — although it does not apply to selection processes in progress. From now on, contests will be able to approve up to triple the number of vacancies in the public notice, considering selections with more than 30 positions offered and made in at least two stages. Previously, this limit was double the number of vacancies available.

According to a statement from the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, the decree can benefit, especially, the contests of the PF (Federal Police) and the PRF (Federal Highway Police), two important bases of support for Bolsonaro, who seeks reelection. The first round takes place this Sunday (2).

“It is hoped that with the measure it will be possible to rationalize the use of candidates in public competitions with training courses, especially those involving Federal Police personnel and Federal Highway Police personnel”, says the Secretariat.

The decree also modifies criteria for automatic disapproval due to poor placement and the rules for extending the validity period of contests. According to the Ministry of Economy, the changes aim at a better use of approved candidates.

The act also waived the need for authorization from the Minister of Economy to extend the validity of tenders. Thus, the bodies that have a valid contest will lead the process.

What changes?

Arthur Lima, founding partner of Directorate Contests, explains that, previously, in a contest with 30 vacancies, the body could consider that the 60 first places were approved. All other candidates would automatically fail, and could not be called under any circumstances.

“With this new decree, the agency will be able to consider that the first 90 places (triple the number of vacancies) have been approved. Thus, according to the need, the agency will be able to summon more candidates for new classes of the training course, appointing much more civil servants to from a single contest”, he says.

According to him, police competitions such as those of the PF and PRF are known to eliminate many candidates in the stages after the objective and discursive tests.

“Therefore, for these contests, it is very important to increase the volume of those approved in the first stage. In this way, even with the eliminations that will certainly occur in the later stages of the contest, it will still be possible to appoint a large contingent of new servers”, he says.

This is also what Vandré Amorim, professor of Administrative Law at Gran Cursos, says. According to him, in processes with more than one stage — as is also the case with the INSS — it is common for many people to fail the training course, which makes it difficult to nominate candidates. With the increase in the number of approved people, the selection margin becomes greater.

Amorim emphasizes that the measure does not change the rule that allows appointing up to 25% of the original number of vacancies. According to him, what is being authorized now is a greater number of approved.

In Lima’s opinion, the act helps to ensure that the contest reaches its ultimate goal, which is to provide the public agency with the number of public servants it needs. “I understand that this measure is also positive for concurseiros, as it prevents them from being unnecessarily eliminated from a public contest”, he says.

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