The National Archives may be transferred to a new ministry: the Ministry of Public Management.
"More than 60 institutions have released a letter demanding the appointment of someone qualified to care for collections dating back to 1809," says Denise Assis.
By Denise Assis, for 247
The National Archives (in downtown Rio de Janeiro), which has historically been linked to the Civil House, was transferred to the Ministry of Justice, and is now expected to be part of a newly created ministry called the Ministry of Public Management. All indications suggest that the new ministry will be headed by economist Esther Dweck, an academic and professor of Economics at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).
Throughout her career in the public sector, the economist has worked at the Ministry of Planning, where she served as Secretary of Budget between 2011 and 2016, and will now be in charge of organizing the government apparatus.
The Archives has been in the hands of a director in recent months whose appointment has been questioned. In November 2021, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding the appointment of Ricardo Borda D'Água de Almeida Braga to the position of director-general of the institution, a federal body linked to the structure of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.
The appointment of Borda D'Água, published in the Official Gazette of the Union on November 19 of that year, provoked protests among professionals and entities linked to the fields of archival science, information science, and history—areas related to the core activity of the National Archives.
More than 60 institutions released a letter at the time, demanding the appointment of someone with technical qualifications to care for collections ranging from 1809, through documentation from the dictatorship and notarial records, researched by those who intend to acquire property certificates, for example. Another indispensable collection is that which allows those interested to obtain dual citizenship – the arrival of immigrants was registered at the port and a large part of these lists is found in the National Archives.
"In Brazil, there are numerous professionals with the necessary expertise, and it is unreasonable for the National Archives to be headed by an individual whose resume makes no mention of experience in document management and/or training in archival science, information science, history, cultural heritage, memory, preservation, and related fields," read an excerpt from the manifesto.
Borda D'Água was the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention at the Secretariat of Public Security of the Federal District between 2019 and 2020, during the administration of Governor Ibaneis Rocha (MDB).
It wasn't long before accusations surfaced, accusing the director, who was linked to the Security area, of tampering with the preservation of documents gathered by the National Truth Commission, a highly uncomfortable topic for the military and the government he served.
In November of this year (2022), the TCU (Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts) released the result of a "ruling" to verify the maintenance of this documentation and attested that: "in general, they meet the requirements of the technical guidelines" and did not indicate "discarding of documents".
After the technicians' work, the TCU (Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts) concluded that the allegation made by the deputies who filed the complaint, that Decree No. 10.148/2019 eliminated the National Archives' authority to authorize the elimination of public documents, transferring it to federal government agencies, was unfounded. According to the ministers of the Court of Accounts, the elimination of public documents has always been the responsibility of the highest-ranking officials of each agency or entity, and not the Director-General of the National Archives.
The fact is that the distrust regarding a director without experience in the technical area and close to a government that favors "100-year-old secrets," with a background in Security, never reassured the staff about the safekeeping and preservation of the documentation.
Furthermore, there is an understanding that the functions of the National Archives are multiple, not limited to the general notion that it houses historical documents intended only for researchers. Its facets are diverse, primarily that of assisting in clarifying notarial rights, an activity often ignored by society in general. Some lament that an institution of such importance (where the original of the Golden Law, the documents of the Devassa [a historical investigation], and the first Constitution – 1824, for example – are kept) is left adrift, without a permanent location, jeopardizing its collection and the activities derived from it. With the Ministry of Justice, the Archives would be in good hands.
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* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.