BRL 12 million project between MEC and UFS has salary of BRL 430 thousand

In addition to angering researchers in the field due to excessive expenses with hotels, trips and the large number of people involved, the project by the Ministry of Education (MEC) with the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS) in the amount of BRL 12.2 million denounced by Gazeta do Povo last Sunday (20) also draws attention to the remuneration promised to the main team, many of them in exchange for just two hours a week of work.

Altogether, contract 017/2023-UFS for evaluation of the National Book and Teaching Material Program (PNLD) presents 454 people involved in the work — not counting employees from the Sergipe Research and Extension Support Foundation (Fapese) and the research institute that will be hired — and allocates around BRL 5.5 million for these people’s salaries between January 2023 and May 2025. However, almost half of that amount is for a group of 10 people.

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The highest salary goes to the coordinator, who holds a PhD in Biotechnology and will receive the total of BRL 430 thousand by two hours weekly that he will dedicate to his work until May 2025. “If we take this amount and divide it by 125 weeks of duration of the project, the coordinator will receive BRL 1,723.35 for each hour worked”, calculates professor Alan Almeida Santos, from the UFS mathematics department.

According to him, an educator dedicated exclusively to the university — 40 hours weekly — who earned this amount for each hour worked would receive at the end of the month an amount of almost BRL 300 thousandvalue that represents 20 times more than the coordinator receives a salary at the university. According to data from June 2023 available on the Transparency Portal of the Federal Government, the gross monthly remuneration of the teacher mentioned in the contract is BRL 14,558.74 with exclusive dedication.

The project coordinator will receive the total of BRL 430 thousand per two hours weekly that he will dedicate to his work until May 2025. Image: Reproduction/Contract 017-2023-UFS

After her, the second highest salary is for an advisory technician who does not have his name revealed in the contract or the functions he will perform. For him, the gross remuneration will be BRL 375 thousand paid by the Sergipe Research and Extension Support Foundation (Fapese), an entity hired by UFS to manage the total cost of the project.

The next powerful salaries on the list are destined to two advisory technicians and three support technicians who will receive BRL 225 thousand It is BRL 156 thousand, respectively. These amounts will be paid by Fapese to each professional, and the names, details of functions or workload of these recipients are also not disclosed in the document.

Salary seven times higher than average per hour of work

Following the highest salaries are three researchers in the area of ​​Biological Sciences, who will receive BRL 150 thousand each for two hours a week. “That is, they will work 250 hours worth BRL 600 each”, explains the mathematician, who compares this value per hour to the average salary received by a university professor.

“An educator who works 40 hours a week and earns around BRL 15 thousand have their hour of work costing BRL 90. So, the value received by the same professional in this project is seven times greater”, points out Santos.

In addition, the contract still earmarks wages for BRL 96 thousand for six other support technicians hired by Fapese, and guarantees salaries of up to BRL 90 thousand for communication advisors, who also receive the amount for two hours a week. “I.e, BRL 360 per hour”, calculates the doctor in mathematics.

This contract did not go through the CGU

In a note sent to Gazeta do Povo regarding the case, the UFS informed that the clauses and details of the expenses of Contract 017/2023-UFS were based on models of previous contracts that “have already been analyzed without objections by the Comptroller General of Union (CGU)”.

That is, the document cited by the Gazeta do Povo report was not analyzed by the CGU, as disclosed in a report last Thursday (24). According to the Federal Government’s internal control body, “in relation to Contract 017/2023-UFS, there is no work done or in progress”, and complaints sent by any citizen to the Fala.BR website can still be analyzed throughout the year. year.

After all, what is this project about?

According to the contract between UFS and Fapese, the project with resources from the Ministry of Education addresses the National Book and Didactic Material Program (PNLD), which provides didactic works and support materials for public schools of basic education throughout Brazil . However, the budget BRL 12.2 million does not mention preparing books or sending materials to schools, since the budget only BRL 145 thousand dollars for material impressions and editing expenses.

What will be done, according to the contract, is to support the execution of the “PNLD Structuring Project”, which aims to “evaluate performance, develop management and advisory instruments” to promote a diagnosis of the current project. “Including suggesting changes in routes or resumption of previous paths with regard to the pedagogical evaluation stage”, quotes the document.

For a specialist from the PNLD program interviewed by Gazeta do Povo who preferred not to be identified, this already occurs naturally within the program through technical meetings and the MEC itself, “which retakes this route when the pedagogical coordination realizes that something is not happening correctly”, he explains.

In addition, the contract provides for “a series of studies” that direct the elaboration of parameters for pedagogical evaluation and to “impact the entire chain of production of landmark texts” such as public notices, guidelines for evaluators, evaluation sheets and resources. Evaluation of materials, such as literary works, and remote and face-to-face events are also planned.

According to the aforementioned PNLD specialist, there is already a “quite robust” technical committee in the program and with “multivocality of thought, an enrichment instrument that guarantees everyone the opportunity to work in a tolerant way, with different ideas”. Therefore, she warns that, by breaking this structure, “a single voice can be established and reverberating only one idea”, points out the educator, concerned with the ideological implementation of this unique discourse. “I even think this is similar to what North Korea does and what Adolf Hitler has done.”

And what does the UFS say?

On its website, the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS) took a position regarding the report published by Gazeta do Povo last Sunday (20), denying “implementation of a leftist agenda” and stating that “there is no investigation or evidence of irregularities about the case”.

The university mentions that the National Book and Teaching Material Program (PNLD) is almost 85 years old, is recognized worldwide for its solidity and has gone through previous evaluation processes with other public universities and “similar parameters”.

“The forecasted expenses take into account technical criteria, such as the daily value standard established by CNPq and Fapese, and the market values ​​of the tickets, when the project is presented in 2022”, and he points out that “so far the project did not spare resources with international tickets and accommodation for the researchers involved, restricting itself to national travel for meetings with the MEC, in Brasília”.

Regarding the “legitimacy of the performance of the institution’s professors around the project”, the note also informs that the PNLD Structuring Project team is linked to several areas, “such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, pedagogy, biology, communication, among others ” and that involves “scholarship students and professors from different areas of the degree, in addition to participants outside the UFS”.