I start with Rodrigo da Fonseca in 1835, quoted by Maria de Fatima Bonifacio: “Work is our battlefield.” In fact, since the emergence of liberalism in the 19th century, finding a job in the state – if possible at the level of a leader – has been an obsession with addiction that remains unchanged 200 years later, regardless of regimes. Survive them all.

The ability to nominate members and dedicated members of political parties to government office is one of the most important awards a party receives when it wins an election. It is acceptable and understandable that after the formation of a government, its members want to receive advice and accompany people who enjoy their political and personal confidence. This is the case all over the world, even in countries with consolidated democracies. The problem of abuse does not arise in these situations, as these people (and there are hundreds of them) come in when the government takes office and leave when political officials leave their positions.

Serious and detrimental to the public interest is the exploitation of the ownership of the political office – temporary, as is always the case in a democracy – for the capture of state, central and local administrations, regulatory bodies, state companies and concessionaires, with the appointment of godchildren, friends and party comrades who remain there after the expiration of the term that named them. Since they are not places of political trust, anyone who comes next to take political office will have to work with them or – more normally – put them on a shelf, allow another one, and the state treasury will support two, if not three salaries. … the same place.

To make it difficult to appoint people of personal confidence or supporters to positions that are not politically credible and that require qualifications and experience rather than loyalty, a new institution was created a few years later called CRESAP (Recruitment and Selection Commission) … back to government) to provide some transparency on such appointments. If that was really the intention, it was the end.

And the constant trick to make CRESAP irrelevant – an apology for calling a ruse in what is simply an insult to the intellect of the magicians – is to create the skills and experience of the person the government intends to appoint before being assessed by CRESAP. … How is this done? This sponsored person is listed in the “replacement mode” for a vacant leadership position, wait a few months before the competition opens and when the competition opens, the sponsored person will participate with the training program he received exactly with this “provisional assignment”. … And in these conditions, the chances of becoming the chosen one are huge. CRESAP is a filling verb.

These casual appointees, who shamelessly leave behind what they often lack in competence, are sometimes appointed to vital positions, sometimes relatively, but not for this reason are deprived of real power. Basically, the friends who brought them to the site are the same people they will practice in carrying out their functions, as well as in choosing their deputies, deputy directors, advisers, consultants, etc. Conveyor belt of places for reliable people or people deserving of an award, who might end up with the doorman if this seat is vacated.

If this practice in public administration and state institutions were copied in other organizations and other spheres of activity, this would have much more serious consequences. But since we are in the area of ​​those places where a great responsibility is primarily political obedience, one can imagine that the killed and wounded would not have come out of there, if not for what happened a few years ago in Pedrogao, events that are incompetent political Assigning aid funds was very relevant in the scale of the tragedy.

But this real trick with “replacement mode” appointments can be remedied by CRESAP itself in a simple way, or if CRESAP realizes that the statute does not allow it to have this competence, it can at least publicly ask parliament for it. … Just go to this model: all people can apply for a vacant position, including those assigned to replacements, but only the experience and qualifications of the applicant are taken into account for assessment purposes. on the date the seat becomes vacant, and not on the date of the start of the competition.

The current model is a perversion of the constitutional rules of equality, in addition to the serious damage to integrity and credibility that are supposed to come from the heads of public administration. The majority in parliament can change this situation without the consent of the ruling party. But do you want to do this, or do you prefer to keep the current model so that when the government can implement it, for your own political group? The younger ones still remember the promise made by former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres after winning the 1999 election: “No work for boys“. More than 20 years have passed. Was seen…