Fernando Alcoforado*
President Lula, Vice- President Geraldo Alckmin and ministers recently met with 27 governors at the Planalto Palace. In this meeting with President Lula, the state governors presented their demands to the federal government, informed about their priorities in terms of works to be carried out, as well as about the stopped public works that need to be reactivated with the support of the federal government. Topics such as tax reform, the issue of ICMS in the states and priority works were addressed at the meeting. Identical meetings with municipal governments will also be held for the same purpose. President Lula stated that he will not make a distinction between governors who support or oppose the federal government, which, in his view, would be a sign of pacification in Brazilian politics. This meeting differed from what happened during the Bolsonaro government, when it clashed with several governors and there were no initiatives aimed at working together with state governments and municipal governments.
This meeting deserves applause because it may represent the start of a new era in public administration in Brazil in which the federal government, state governments and municipal governments will manage Brazil in an integrated manner. This praise is pertinent because throughout Brazil’s history, the lack of integration between the federal, state and municipal governments in promoting national, regional and local development has been flagrant. Associated with this fact is the existence of inadequate organizational structures at each of the federal, state and municipal levels, which make the integrative effort unfeasible in these instances of government. The lack of integration of the various government instances is total, causing the action of the public power to become chaotic as a whole, generating, as a result, diseconomies of all kinds. The organizational structures of government at all levels in Brazil are outdated. It is inadmissible that the federal, state and municipal governments overlap efforts, as it still happens today in many sectors, exhausting the meager resources placed at their disposal.
There is an urgent need to adopt an integrated public sector management model in Brazil that would oppose what currently prevails, in which the federal, state and municipal governments are autonomous in their deliberations and actions. In order to make the governmental structures act in an integrated way, it is necessary to constitute the so-called network State. The Network State presupposes the implementation of a Network Structure, or Network Organization, which is a type of organizational macrostructure that would work according to a logic of a circular or star-shaped organization chart, at the center of which is the main organization, that is, the federal government. Below the federal government would be the state governments, municipal governments and public companies. The objectives and operational plans of the components of the network structure must be jointly established by all its members. The operation of this type of organization would be supported by modern computer and telecommunications systems that would allow the management and control of all processes.
Operationally, the members of a network structure would be horizontally connected to all the others, directly or through those who surround them. The democratic functioning of a network organization is measured by the real freedom of circulation of information within it and, therefore, by the absence of censorship, controls, hierarchies or manipulation in this circulation. The current possibilities offered by information technology – in the speed of communication and in the storage of information – can give extreme efficiency to networks constituted with specific objectives, as well as effectively guaranteeing them full freedom of information circulation. A network can interconnect both people and organizations. The network structure interconnecting federal and state government bodies, city halls and public companies in planning and operation must be the solution to make the State efficient and effective in Brazil.
In addition to creating the possibility of coordinating the actions of all levels of government, the network structure will make it possible to reduce the State’s operating costs and, consequently, minimize the tax burden on taxpayers. For the Lula government to carry out a real revolution in the work processes of the public sector in Brazil, it is essential, however, to recycle all civil servants, change the entire culture that is dominant in the State apparatus today and adopt a policy of remuneration for work compatible with their new responsibilities. As for public companies, the relationship between their directors and the bodies to which they report must be based on management contracts. Through these contracts, public companies would obtain relative autonomy in relation to the State and would assume the commitment to pursue pre-established targets of efficiency and effectiveness. If they are not successful, they would be removed from their posts.
Here are these integrated management suggestions for Brazil for the Lula government to implement for the benefit of the Brazilian population.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, university professor (Engineering, Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022)and a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, United States, 2022).
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