Senate exams should be annulled.

Brasilia 247 - The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in the Federal District (MPF/DF) has requested the annulment of the objective tests of specific knowledge for the physiotherapy and urology positions in the Federal Senate's competitive examination, held on March 11 of this year. The MP also wants new exams to be prepared and reapplied for these positions. The action also requests that the organizer of the examination, Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), pay R$ 2,5 million in moral damages. This amount corresponds to 10% of the total collected from the registration fees of all candidates, R$ 25 million.

The new date must be announced within 15 days, maintaining the 20-day gap between the announcement and the exam date. Failure to comply with this requirement will result in a fine of R$ 10 per day. The exams must be original and the questions kept confidential.

The Public Prosecutor's Office concluded that 80% of the questions asked were literally copied from previous exams, in clear violation of the principles of equality, morality, impartiality, and confidentiality of the exams. According to the investigations, 32 out of 40 questions on the specific knowledge tests for the Senate physiotherapist position are repeated from previous exams.

The number of copied questions is repeated in the exams for the position of urologist, with the aggravating factor that, of the 32 cloned questions in this case, 29 are from the same exam, for the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, held in 2010.

Federal prosecutor Marcus Marcelus Goulart emphasizes in the lawsuit that this is not merely a matter of similarity in content. "Several questions are completely identical, while others have only subtle variations in wording," Goulart states.

Before resorting to legal action, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) requested a statement from FGV. After almost a month and two deadline extensions, the organizing body offered no explanation regarding the cloning of the questions, limiting itself to responding that the tests were efficient and effective in assessing the candidates' level of knowledge.

At the time of the exams, it was revealed that the questions had already been used for selection processes at Eletronorte, the Civil Police of Pará, the Health Department of Santa Catarina, as well as the municipalities of Timon (MA), Vitória (ES), Umbaúba (SE), Coronel Fabriciano (MG), Balneário Camboriú, Bom Jardim (PE), Olinda (PE), Cristais (MG), and Abreu e Lima (PE). In total, ten organizing bodies, including the Center for Selection and Promotion of Events (Cespe), allegedly had their questions cloned.

The lawsuit was filed last Tuesday, the 8th, and announced this Wednesday, the 9th.

Other irregularities

Since the publication of the Senate Federal's competitive examination notice on December 22, 2011, 28 proceedings have been initiated with allegations of irregularities in the selection process at the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in the Federal District.

Of this total, 13 proceedings have already been archived, meaning the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office considered that there was no illegality or minimum evidence to initiate an investigation. Twelve proceedings originated formal investigations: preparatory proceedings (10), public civil inquiry (01) or police inquiry (01). One proceeding is in the initial analysis phase (information document).

In two cases, legal action was taken. The first, filed on February 22, 2012, and with a favorable preliminary injunction, challenged a clause in the public notice that required candidates for the position of legislative police officer to present a certificate of no protest from the registry offices of the cities where they resided and worked in the last five years, under penalty of elimination from the competition. The second, filed yesterday, requests the annulment of the objective tests of specific knowledge in the areas of physiotherapy and urology.

With information from the Attorney General's Office in the Federal District.