Panel SA: Ipea servers denounce political persecution and accuse president of omission

Employees of Ipea (Institute for Applied Economic Research) accuse the president, Erik Figueiredo, of covering up cases of moral harassment and political persecution in the institution, allegedly practiced by directors of the institution aligned with Jair Bolsonaro.

The first denunciation of a series that is being prepared was delivered to the CGU (Controladoria Geral da União) this Monday (12) and targets the director of Sectorial Studies, Infrastructure, Regulation and Innovation (Diset), João Maria de Oliveira, and his deputy, Edison Benedito da Silva Filho.

It was presented by a server. The SA Panel had access to the document. In it, Oliveira is accused of practicing, over the last eight months, moral harassment, defamation, slander against colleagues and, particularly, against servants who had been invited by Figueiredo to assume a command position in other boards.

Oliveira holds a PhD in Economics from UnB (University of Brasília). He was Deputy Deputy Secretary of the Administration and Human Resources Secretariat of Rio Grande do Norte and Undersecretary of Fiscal Policy at the Ministry of Economy.

A career server at Ipea, he was appointed director of Diset in April this year, shortly after the dismissal of members of the board due to Erik Figueiredo taking office.

The institute conducts research as a support for government actions in the formulation of public policies.

In August, Figueiredo was criticized for the alleged political use of Ipea when he signed a study contesting other surveys that showed an increase in the number of Brazilians experiencing food insecurity or hunger.

According to the document sent to the CGU, Figueiredo was informed about the cases of harassment. “Unfortunately, the president of Ipea and the general coordinator of Human Resources of the body were alerted to the problems, but they omitted”.

The events would have started in April, shortly after one of the whistleblowers was invited by Figueiredo to be an assistant to a board.

According to the complaint, the director of Diset then began “to carry out a defamatory campaign against” this and other servants “for the president and other colleagues [convidados para assumir outras diretorias], a fact that there were (sic) numerous witnesses. The president of the body ended up choosing not to nominate us to the positions he had invited, however, without even informing us. We found out from the DOU [Diário Oficial da União]🇧🇷 Instead, it appointed João Maria himself as director [da Diset]”, says the whistleblower to the CGU.

After taking office, still according to him, the director of Ipea started to persecute public servants who, supposedly, “had opinions or even a different political vision from the current management”. João Maria would be aligned with Bolsonarism.

In that group, there were at least three who would have become targets of intimidation. At their request, the column preserved its identity.

They were working on a project with the Central Bank, the result of an agreement between Ipea and the local authority. They say that, by order of Oliveira and without explanation, the project was cancelled. They claim that the explanations were vague and fanciful – like “the Central Bank no longer wants the project”.

The servers claim to have sent a letter to Diset, pointing out the lack of legal basis for the director’s decision.

In response, they said they heard the following sentence from Oliveira: “This is not a democracy here and it will be how I decide”.

From there, still according to the complaint, the persecutions intensified. Without justification, Oliveira would have canceled the DAS [bonificação] of the financing studies coordinator responsible for the project with BC.

He would then have asked his deputy, Edison Benedito da Silva Filho, to pressure the complainant to change directors.

In a private conversation (which would have been recorded), he asked to leave or “put him in HR”.

At the same time, he said that Oliveira would have asked the other directors of the body not to receive him anymore.

The situation, according to the complainant, led him to a deep depression that kept him away from work for two months. In his narrative, he states that other servers also face a similar situation.

Through its advisory, Ipea reported that the president and directors involved had not received notification from the CGU about the alleged complaint. Therefore, the president of Ipea, the director and the deputy director of Diset will not manifest themselves at the moment.

Julio Wiziack (interim) with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix