Source: Last Second, 24/12/2007

Brazilian public management, at the most varied levels, does not invest resources efficiently in the sectors that it traditionally manages - security, education, health and social security -, according to a study carried out by the Institute for Economic Research Foundation (Fipe), under the order of the Brazilian Institute of Competitive Ethics (Etco). “The management variables are more important than the amount invested”, evaluates the president of Etco, André Franco Montoro Filho.

In the area of ​​education, Brazil shows low performance when the data obtained here are compared with results from other countries that have been submitted to the International Student Assessment Program (Pisa). While Brazil, which invests 6,6% of GDP in education (including public and private investments), reached only 350 points in Pisa, the international average is 500 points, with the average application percentage of 6,3% of GDP in the sector.

When analyzing the expenses of small units, the study compared the performance of the José Negri Municipal School, in Sertãozinho (SP) - which obtained an average of 6,1 in the Basic Education Development Index (Ideb), spending R $ 2,6 thousand per year with each student - with the José Ferreira Bastos Municipal School, from Itabirito (MG), which had an average of 5,9, spending R $ 700 less per student / year. “Factors such as the existence of computer rooms connected to the internet and reading rooms are pushing performance upwards,” says Montoro.

Public spending on health has also proved to be inefficient. Primary care, which can solve up to 85% of the population's health problems, is the target of the Family Health Program (PSF) and the Community Health Agents Program (PACS). But the study shows that, even if these programs reach the entire population, the interaction of basic services with highly complex medical centers is flawed. As health care involves the three spheres of public power, the actions run into bureaucracy and delays in transfers. Another problem is that medical schools prioritize training in specialties, when the PSF needs general practitioners.

In the area of ​​security, spending increases in line with crime rates, when it would be desirable for the increase in transfers to contribute to reducing those rates. The study finds that expenditures with repression mechanisms grow proportionately more than the resources destined for prevention. In São Paulo, the study reveals, half of the annual security budget goes to the Military Police. The study alleges that the city of Diadema, in the ABC Paulista, which was known for high levels of violence, bet on prevention and monitoring, instead of repression, and improved its rates.

The study identifies a virtuous relationship: social investments that manage to decrease the Gini index (which measures social inequality) by 1%, would simultaneously cause a 55% drop in the homicide rate. In other words, they would achieve a result ten times more efficient than would be possible with the 1% increase in public security spending - which would induce a drop of just 5% in the homicide rate.

To change this scenario, the study points out, public administrations would need to undergo a management shock. “It is a lot of money with little result. We have expenses equivalent to those of Japan and the USA, and third world results ”, says the study's coordinator, economist Hélio Zylberstajn. For him, the State contributes to inefficiency when it has a relationship with its employees that guarantees stability and rarely demands the achievement of goals. "If each civil servant were permanently evaluated, as in the private sector, his performance would be better." The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo