Management will have a secretariat for administrative reform and coordination of state-owned companies

The Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services, Esther Dweck, will create an Extraordinary Secretariat for Transformation of the State in her portfolio. One of the main attributions of the new structure will be to discuss a proposal for administrative reform.

The new ministry will also have secretariats to take care of government management, personnel policies and the digitization of services. Dweck will still have under his umbrella the management of state-owned companies.

According to the minister, the extraordinary secretariat will take care of “structuring projects”, including administrative reform. The approval of a proposal in this direction is awaited by the financial market, which sees the initiative as one of the ways for the government to control public spending in the medium and long term.

In a nod to this segment, the administrative reform was defended by Lula at an event with businessmen promoted by Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo) in early August, still during the campaign.

Party interlocutors, however, stated on different occasions that the focus of the reform should be broader than just the tax, also aiming at measures to gain efficiency.

But one of the fronts of discussion involves, in fact, the possibility of changing the structure of careers. The changes would only apply to new servers.

The format of the proposal is still under discussion, but party members defend a reduction in entry salaries and an increase in the number of steps between the initial salary and the top of the careers —today, some servers already start earning more than R$ 20 thousand per month and take a few years to reach the maximum remuneration.

Changing the stability of the servers, however, is something discarded by the team of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). This is one of the reasons why the new government has already ruled out the possibility of taking advantage of PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) 32, sent in 2020 by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government to change the structure of the public service.

The text was even approved by a special committee of the Chamber in the early hours of September 24, 2021, but it never had enough support —in the Bolsonaro government itself and in Congress—to go ahead.

In early December, members of the new administration recommended the withdrawal of the proposal and the elaboration of another one, based on a “new vision”.

“The two GTs [grupos técnicos]Planning and Work understand that this is a fair demand [a desistência da proposta atual]given that PEC 32 began, in fact, with a vision of the State completely different from what we understand”, said Dweck in December.

As shown to Sheetthe creation of an evaluation system for federal civil servants, within the reach of the citizens themselves, was one of the suggestions discussed during the electoral race.

Other points that guide the discussions are the deepening of the digital transition, the modernization of the format of public tenders —with the expansion of the policy of quotas for minorities, such as indigenous people— and the fight against moral and sexual harassment in the federal administration.

Dweck will also be in charge of managing state-owned companies – an area that was coveted by Simone Tebet (MDB), head of the Ministry of Planning and Budget.

In the Bolsonaro government, the structure of Sest (Secretariat for Coordination and Governance of State-owned Companies) was housed in the Ministry of Economy, linked to the Special Secretariat for Privatization, Divestment and Markets.

Lula, in turn, decided to recreate the Planning portfolio, but at the same time separated the management secretariats and delegated them to the Ministry headed by Dweck.

The split in Planning triggered a movement by Tebet to try to strengthen his future portfolio, which ended up not being successful.

The minister made an unsuccessful attempt to place public banks under her umbrella and share management of the PPI (Investment Partnerships Program), responsible for privatizations and concessions, despite the MDB having pleaded for full coordination.

Tebet also aimed to stay in the relationship with state-owned enterprises, but he was not successful on that front either.

Sest draws up the expenditure program and the investment budget for public companies, as well as operationalizes appointments of administrators and fiscal advisors representing the economic team in the companies. The secretariat also deals with requests from state-owned companies regarding personnel policy (adjustments and benefits), eventual changes in pension plans and the cost of health care benefits.

At the risk of taking over an empty body, Tebet is being advised to adopt the permanent evaluation of public policies as the flagship of her portfolio, connecting the practice to the process of preparing and executing the Budget —which may eventually contribute to improving the accounts .

The Minister of Planning and Budget will also have the power to influence crucial discussions in the government, including the new fiscal rule that will replace the current spending ceiling – in which she will act together with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT).