Minister Paulo Guedes’ team (Economy) assured the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) that there will be no shortage of resources for the Census in 2022.
The budget needed, of R$2.3 billion, was partially cut in a recent report by the Chamber — which put the research in check for the third year in a row.
The Census should have been carried out in 2020, as the survey is carried out every ten years and the last one was carried out in 2010. Last year, the survey was not carried out due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the budget discussions for the following year, in 2021, resources were cut, and the country was again without the numbers. Now, the promise is that the research will not go away.
The guarantee was given at a technical meeting on the Census, this Tuesday (14), in Brasília. The meeting was attended by the president of IBGE, Eduardo Luiz Gonçalves Rios Neto; the Special Secretary of Treasury and Budget, Esteves Colnago; the Secretary for Economic Policy, Adolfo Sachsida; and institute staff.
IBGE members heard from Colnago that, even if Congress makes a cut during the course of the 2022 Budget proposal, there is no doubt that the government will restore the necessary appropriations for the Census to be concluded next year.
The secretaries expressed that the economic team is committed to carrying out the Census. The issue has also been followed up by the STF (Supreme Federal Court), which forced the government to carry out the Census in 2022.
Initially, the Executive had set aside only R$ 2 billion to carry out the survey in 2022. The institute, however, stated that R$ 2.3 billion would be needed to carry out the research.
The state of Maranhão, which was already questioning the failure to carry out the Census in 2021, asked the Supreme Court to order the government to allocate the amount informed by the IBGE to the STF as necessary for the research.
In light of this, the federal government backed off and informed that it would add the remaining amount (R$ 292 million) to carry out the Census.
In recent weeks, the Census was once again at risk. A sectorial report by the CMO (Miscellaneous Budget Commission) now foresees the use of only R$ 1.9 billion for the survey.
Rios Neto, president of IBGE, told the leaf that the Budget Rapporteur, Deputy Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), undertook to recompose the values after meetings on the subject.
“There is no reason to suspect that we are going to reach the end without this harmony and the president’s sanction. This is my expectation. And the IBGE’s posture is harmonious, not bellicose,” said the IBGE president.
Loyal also made the promise publicly. “The Census will come out in 2022. There are R$ 2.292 billion in the budget. There is no mistake. The president of the IBGE was here and we agreed on that and everything is recomposed”, stated the reporter on the social network on Sunday (12).
The president of IBGE already commands the preparation for the 2022 Census, which began through technical meetings.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Economy authorized a simplified selection process for more than 207,000 vacancies for the Census. The selection process will be organized by the FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas).
There’s no reason to suspect that we’re going to make it to the end without this harmony and the president’s sanction. this is my expectation
There is still no defined timetable for the start of field research —when researchers take to the streets and interview the population from house to house—, but the expectation is that this will start in May. “I can do it until October. What I want is a well-done Census”, said Rios Neto.
The 2022 Census is planned after a succession of problems related to the subject.
In March, after Congress cut most of the resources allocated to national research, then IBGE president Susana Cordeiro Guerra asked to resign from her post. At the time, Guedes blamed Congress for the shearing.
Former presidents of the institute also said in March that a further postponement of the survey would “blind the country” and said that without the Census, Brazil was joining Haiti, Afghanistan, Congo, Libya — countries that have more than 11 years do not have adequate statistical information.
At this Tuesday’s meeting, Guedes’ team sought to undo the tension between the ministry and the IBGE since the minister, dissatisfied with unemployment figures, stated that the institute was in the “age of the chipped stone”.
Sachsida thanked the IBGE for its work during the pandemic, said that the institute has an international reference work and jokingly complained that she had not received a vest from the organ — being promptly presented with one, which she donned to applause.
The president of IBGE took advantage of the favorable climate with the Ministry of Economy to remind the secretaries of other demands.
Among them are that the institute be awarded at least part of the budget for public tenders in 2022 and that resources for hiring are also provided for in 2023.
“It is undeniable that we are far below the ideal volume of permanent employees. There are several people waiting to finish the Census in order to retire,” Rios Neto told the report.
In addition, he asks that temporary employees — selected through a simplified selection process — can stay for a longer term, of five years, instead of the current three years.
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