By TADEU ALENCAR ARRAIS*
Goodbye to the public tender – a message for the contestants on duty.
That's right. No more euphemisms, softenings, roundabouts, diversions. That's what millions of people who attend prep courses across the country should know. The coveted career at the INSS, at the Federal Revenue Service, at the Federal Public Defender's Office or as a teacher in higher education institutions, among other bodies, is at risk. Understanding risk demands exploring the following paradox: is it possible to support governments that defend the Minimum State and, at the same time, dream, like a debutante, of a solid career in public administration?
Article 6 of the federal Constitution it places education, health, food, work, housing, transportation, leisure, security, social security, maternity and childhood protection and assistance to the homeless on the list of social rights. This means that, to meet the project of universalization of public services, the State demands, on the one hand, the physical infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, kindergartens, INSS posts, police stations, etc., and, on the other hand, teachers , nurses, doctors, technicians, auditors, etc.
Article 6, therefore, is the first key to understanding the imperative need for public tenders in different areas of the state bureaucracy. The second key is the realization that the private sector, in a country of 8,5 million km2, does not meet the demands of a population that simply does not have the resources to enroll their child in a private school or even pay for a health plan. And, even with resources, it is good to know that private health and education services do not exist in a significant fraction of the “Beloved Homeland Brazil”.
Figure 1. Brazil, municipalities without occurrence of private elementary schools, 2021
Source: INPE (2021)
Figure 1 can be read as a denunciation of the inefficiency of the private sector. In 2.353 Brazilian municipalities, in an area equivalent to 2,96 million km2, there is no record of the presence of private schools and, therefore, of teachers in the private network. The educational market is, so to speak, public. It is as if in the entirety of the Northeast Region and the South Region, and a few states in the Midwest, there was not a single, redundancy is deliberate, private school. That will never be understood by the single daughter of the deceased pensioner of the dying prosecutor, who lives in Leblon and receives a monthly salary of 25 thousand reais.
Figure 2. Brazil, total number of public health establishments, by municipality, July 2022
Source: DATA-SUS (2022)
The territory without private schools is also the territory without private health. The private health map is primarily urban and metropolitan. The public health map, as shown in Figure 2, in addition to being urban and metropolitan, serves rural communities, riverside communities, villages, in short, the entire Brazilian territory, whatever the latitude and whatever the economic situation. . There is not a single, redundancy is deliberate, Brazilian municipality without a public health establishment. In all Brazilian municipalities, at any time of the day or night, an elderly person or a poor pregnant woman found, despite the difficulties, the support of a public health professional.
But the young neoliberal who studied in a public school and dreams of joining the INSS as a Social Security Analyst will say that we don't need teachers and nurses, after all, Rodrigo Constantino, even after the lashes of Ciro Gomes, still insists on teaching that the The gigantism of the Brazilian State hinders the entrepreneurial spirit. The concurseiro studies eight hours a day, including forays into public accounting, administrative law, grammar and, imagine, logic. The concurseiro knows everything about politics. He fails, however, to understand that the Social Security Reform will, of course, dispense with the technical bureaucratic apparatus of the INSS which, every month, manages more than 35 million Social Security benefits. It seems easy to understand. No retirements and pensions, no civil servants to analyze, plan and implement INSS actions and competences.
From the perspective of Article 6 of the federal Constitution, therefore, we realize that the Brazilian State, to borrow the happy title of the book by the Italian Mariana Mazzucato, is the true entrepreneur. It is a state, considering comparisons with the OECD in the total number of civil servants, small. It's all very simple. The State will be small as long as there are no nurseries, schools, universities, health centers, hospitals, police stations, centers for the elderly, libraries, etc., for all Brazilians.
We are, among employees of the Federal, State and Municipal administration, 8,6 million workers dedicated to serving the public. A real army that is often in need of renewal. That's what concurseiros across the country need to understand. The “Beloved Homeland Brazil”, by neglecting education, criminalizing science, penalizing retirees and pensioners, ridiculing culture and treating health with disdain, is also giving a clear message to all those who wish to join in public career. The smaller the state, the bigger the crack! The minimum, therefore, of public tenders and the maximum, that is the plan, of political appointments. The choice, contestant, is all yours! Research, outside the atmosphere of fake news, which government most valued public servants. A hint. Your story as a future public servant could start on the 30th. Think about it. We wait for you!
* Tadeu Alencar Arrais He is a professor at the Department of Geography at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG).
