The civil service’s problem is not size, it’s spent, says economist

The problem with civil servants in Brazil is not the number of civil servants and public offices, but the pressure that some jobs – better paid – exerted by the state bureaucracy on the budget, FGV economist Ibre Daniel Duque told CNN this Tuesday (21).

“There is a disparity not in terms of the size of the state in terms of service provision, but in terms of expenditure. This explains the difference in the average salary (of public servants) in relation to the GDP per capita”, says the economist.

The number of civil servants in Brazil corresponds to 12.5% ​​of the total workforce in the country, a number much lower than the OECD average, which is 21%. On the other hand, Brazil has the seventh largest spending on public servants, occupying 12.9% of GDP, according to a National Treasury survey released this year.

In 2019, according to the federal government, adding the three powers – at the municipal, state and federal levels – spending on civil servants reached R$ 969 billion, with part of this being used to circumvent the salary cap for civil servants, which is of just over R$ 32 thousand.

Also according to the federal government’s figures, in 2019, 94.9% of the amount collected was earmarked for mandatory expenses, and the civil service occupied the second position among the largest expenses, losing only to social security expenses.

But this expense is unequal. A 2017 survey of the Atlas of the Brazilian State, pointed out that the average salary of a Federal Executive servant is R$ 3,900. In the Judiciary sector, this salary jumps to R$ 12 thousand. At the municipal level, the average is R$2.9 thousand, less than two and a half minimum wages.

In addition, the so-called super salaries, which include various benefits, can raise the salaries of public servants in large positions above R$ 100,000, which pushes the average upwards.

Duque also highlights that the return on spending is not consistent with the size of spending practiced in Brazil, and the Administrative Reform, which has been stalled in Congress since September, should work on this difference between the cost of the service and its efficiency.

“We are actually in middling positions or below other countries in terms of service provision in relation to how much we allocate,” he says.

The economist also emphasizes the need to face lobbies to match the level of spending with the world average and increase efficiency. “It is a type of proposal (Administrative Reform) that must be carried out because we cannot live with two tops of wage earners in Brazil, the public sector, with several privileges, and the private sector wage earner paying for this privilege”, evaluates.

The reform gives the possibility, according to Duque, to create a performance evaluation culture, with the provision of a public evaluation through a digital platform. But for this mechanism to be efficient, it is necessary to establish clear rules about the standards of care that need to be achieved.

With information from João Pedro Malar