Source: Maxpress - SP - ECONOMY - 28/07/2009

Governor Paulo Hartung defended the realization of a Reform of the Brazilian State, with the main objective of promoting changes in the laws that govern public service in the country. Hartung was one of the speakers of the panel Efficient Public Management - Success Cases in State Governments, within of the 7th International Competitive Brazil Congress, held this Tuesday (28), in Brasília. The event, organized by the Competitive Brazil Movement (MBC), brought together businessmen, political leaders and organized civil society, federal, state and municipal authorities and journalists.

The panel Efficient Public Management - Success Stories in State Governments was introduced by the founding president of MBC, Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter, and mediated by journalist Cristiana Lobo. Also participating in the panel were the governors of Bahia, Jacques Wagner, of Pernambuco, Eduardo Campos, of Brasília, José Roberto Arruda, and Sergipe, Marcelo Déda.

Governor Paulo Hartung said that the laws that govern public service in Brazil were made for a time that no longer exists. “The current rules for bidding, personnel management, hiring and control need to be rethought. The laws are archaic. There is a bureaucratic web linked to the field of formality and without any commitment to the results. It is necessary to focus on reducing expenses, increasing efficiency and obtaining results ”, stressed the governor, being applauded by those present.

During the Congress, panels were shown showing cases of improvement in public management in the states and municipalities that joined the Modernizing Public Management (PMGP) program, with results in the administration and optimization of resources, reduction of expenses and increase in revenue.

The PMGP, created in 2005, has already been implemented in nine states and four municipalities and is being initiated in other cities. At a cost of R $ 65,7 million, it has generated, so far, gains in expense reduction and an increase of R $ 10,4 billion in revenue, exceeding the accumulated goal of more than R $ 4 billion. The cost x result ratio of the MBC Program points out that for each R $ 1,00 invested the global return was R $ 159,00.

Efficient Public Management

Governor Paulo Hartung said that the recovery of investment capacity, the control and improvement of government spending, strategic planning and the evaluation of actions are fundamental elements for the construction of an efficient public management model.

“We have a false idea that the public service can be second-rate. The public service can and must be of excellence, considering that it is financed by society as a whole and supported by a tax burden that borders on the unbearable. For this reason, the continuous improvement of the structure responsible for the provision of public services is a commitment that governments have to have for the benefit of current and future generations ”, he said.

Hartung took the opportunity to remember that he found a State plunged into a serious institutional crisis and went over the main points of the trajectory of overcoming the Espírito Santo. “When we took over the government in 2003, Espírito Santo was practically bankrupt. Short-term debts - with suppliers, service providers and salaries - amounted to four months of state taxes. Today, we have become an example of good management practices and a socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and geographically devolved development model, ”he said.

The governor stressed that it was necessary to make a very strong fiscal adjustment and a strict control of public expenditures, mainly in relation to current expenses. Hartung also stressed the importance of planning to obtain results. “We do not believe in improvisation and one of the first measures adopted, at the beginning of 2003, was the development of a strategic plan that would define the direction of the state administration in its four years. Still in the first term, but with the most critical phase over, we invested in the construction of a strategic plan with a 20-year horizon, Espírito Santo 2025, with the intense participation of society ”, he said.

Competitive Brazil Movement

Focusing on results, the Competitive Brazil Movement is a Civil Society Organization of Public Interest (OSCIP), non-profit or economic, apolitical and non-partisan. Founded in 2001, MBC articulates a series of projects in the area of ​​Benchmarking, Public Management, Private Management, Innovation and Indexing.