Flaviopédia Português
Brazil that Does Not Go Back

Slim Down the Government Machine and Professionalize Public Management

Proposes cutting at least 10 ministries, reducing political appointees and supersalaries, professionalizing regulatory agencies and state-owned companies and resuming the National Privatization Program.

In the program: [p. 69, 70] · Translated by Flaviopédia from the official Portuguese text; the Portuguese quote is authoritative. Read the original in Portuguese

What the program says

The public machine does not belong to those in power: it belongs to the citizen who pays for it. A well-run State costs less and serves better. We will carry on with the administrative reform we have already put up for discussion, to modernize how the State works and the civil-service career. And we will carry out a broad review of sub-statutory regulations, in public management and in the tax, social-security and labor areas, to eliminate the excess of rules that holds back the economy and makes the machine more expensive. This includes cutting at least 10 ministries, reducing political appointees (cargos comissionados) and administrative expenses, and fighting the pay add-ons and supersalaries that corrode the budget, all with one goal: more efficiency and rationality in serving society. Technology is our ally in this task: the digitalization of public services, which gives citizens their time back in “Brasil sem Fila” (“Brazil without Queues”), is also what makes possible a State that is more agile and less costly on the inside. We will also professionalize the regulatory agencies, strengthening technical criteria in the appointment of their heads, with periodic evaluations and a broad regulatory mass repeal, while preserving legal certainty. But an efficient State is not built only with good structures and good rules: it is built, above all, with the right people in charge. For the PT (Workers’ Party), every state-owned company, every executive board, every pension fund is space to be parceled out among allies, and that is how Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash) found, in the political capture of state-owned companies, the heart of the biggest corruption scheme in the country’s history. A professionalized state-owned company, run by people who understand the business, delivers results and returns value to society, as was seen under the Bolsonaro government. We govern by competence, not by patronage: every position of responsibility in the State must be filled by someone who understands the subject, not by someone who did work for the campaign. In public companies, this protection has a name: the State-Owned Companies Law, of 2016, created after Lava Jato to shield state-owned companies from political appointments, requiring technical qualifications and a quarantine for those coming from an electoral campaign. They tried to weaken it; we will strengthen it. And we will go further: whenever possible, the leadership of state-owned companies and management positions will be filled through recruitment under market rules, with an active search for qualified professionals, as private companies do when looking for their executives, choosing by proven competence and not by political convenience. We will shield state-owned companies’ pension funds from political appointments, because the worker’s retirement cannot become the coffer of a project of power. And we will resume the National Privatization Program with discernment, assessing case by case where the State’s presence has ceased to make sense. A state-owned company is neither a campaign stage nor a sinecure for protégés: it is the property of Brazilians, and it will be treated as such. That is how corruption is fought in a lasting way: by organizing the State to prevent it. Technical leadership instead of patronage, state-owned companies and pension funds protected from political appointments, and transparency over every expenditure are measures that close the doors to misappropriation. A well-structured State is the most effective way to fight corruption. [p. 69, 70]

In plain language

  • The program proposes carrying on with the administrative reform, aimed at how the State works and at the civil-service career, and carrying out a broad review of sub-statutory regulations in public management and in the tax, social-security and labor areas.
  • It provides for cutting at least 10 ministries, reducing political appointees and administrative expenses, and fighting pay add-ons and supersalaries. It cites the digitalization of public services as a way to make the State less costly.
  • For the regulatory agencies, it proposes technical criteria in the appointment of their heads, periodic evaluations and a broad regulatory mass repeal, while preserving legal certainty.
  • For state-owned companies, it proposes strengthening the State-Owned Companies Law of 2016, filling leadership and management positions, whenever possible, through recruitment under market rules, and protecting state-owned companies’ pension funds from political appointments.
  • It provides for resuming the National Privatization Program, assessing case by case. The text presents technical leadership and protection from political appointments as ways to prevent corruption.

What is not in the program

  • It does not say which ministries would be cut or how many political-appointee positions would be cut.
  • It does not detail the content of the administrative reform or which regulations would be reviewed or repealed.
  • It does not explain what would change in the State-Owned Companies Law to strengthen it.
  • It does not list the state-owned companies that would be assessed under the National Privatization Program.
  • It gives no timeline and no estimate of savings.