Administrative and political reforms
Political patronage has existed in Brazil since the Empire, when King João VI, upon taking office, appointed nobles with high salaries. This is a rule that needs to be broken.
The government recently approved in Congress the creation of 90 more appointed positions linked to the Presidency of the Republic. This occurred shortly after the launch of Operation Porto Seguro, which indicted high-ranking officials involved in corruption within the federal administration.
The new appointed positions created by President Dilma, as well as those occupied by those involved in Operation Porto Seguro, do not require public competitive examinations. They are filled through negotiated appointments based on purely political interests and do not aim for good governance. They end up serving to control the public administration through partisan means and to be used as bargaining chips with other parties. Time and again, those who occupy them are involved in shady dealings. Currently, in the federal government alone, there are more than 90 such positions.
Political patronage has existed in Brazil since the Empire, when King João VI, upon taking office, appointed nobles with high salaries. This is a rule that needs to be broken through administrative and political reform aimed at ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in the management of public affairs.
Appointed positions should be kept to a minimum. They should only occur in the top tiers of public administration, based on strategic plans defined by the elected government.
Investing in the professional development of civil servants is fundamental to the efficiency of the public sector. Permanent civil service positions will provide greater expertise in the implementation of government policies and would make the State less vulnerable to the actions of politicians who see these appointments as a way to accommodate cronies at the expense of public funds.
Another aspect that Brazil needs to address is political reform as a factor in combating corruption. Reconfiguring the country's political model could be one of the main contributions to eradicating it from national public life if it succeeded in getting some people to stop being professional politicians.
Politics in Brazil needs shock treatment. It's necessary to stem the rampant flow of corruption and abuses in Brazilian public life. In this sense, a reform in this area should include guidelines such as exclusively public financing of electoral campaigns; district voting; elimination of remuneration for elected positions to prevent the professionalization of politics; prohibition of successive re-elections, including for the Legislative branch; preventing holders of legislative mandates from exercising executive functions; mandatory automatic disclosure of tax and banking secrecy for all candidates for political office and public administrators; and party loyalty.
Brazil needs radical reforms in both the administrative and political spheres. Both should be part of a national agenda, as they are essential for efficient public management and the fight against corruption. It is necessary to eliminate sclerotic and illicit practices that undermine the ethics and finances of the country.