Quotas in functionalism: government prepares new expanded law – 02/17/2023 – Market

A historic claim of the black movement, the law of quotas in public tenders expires in June 2024 under the diagnosis that its effects fell short of expectations. The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) wants to close, still in the first semester of this year, a proposal to renew and improve the legislation.

The intention is to improve the mechanisms to effectively promote a transformation of the federal public service, which still today is made up of a white majority —especially in higher-paying positions.

“At the beginning of the year, we agreed to make an assessment of how this situation is today, both in terms of access, but also in senior management positions, to eventually assess goals and think about ways to guarantee greater diversity at the top”, said the minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services, Esther Dweck, in an interview with Sheet.

Law 12,990 was approved in 2014, based on a project presented by the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government. It provides for a reserve of 20% of the vacancies offered in federal public tenders for black people. The criterion includes those who declare themselves black or brown, according to the classification used by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics).

The law also stipulated a ten-year term for the policy, a period that will be completed in June 2024 — hence the discussion on renewal.

Still during the campaign, Lula’s team was already talking about the need to improve legislation, to also provide for specific quotas for indigenous people.

Now, conversations are moving towards taking care not only of these groups entering the civil service, but also of the conditions for their career advancement. “It is a discussion to assess whether it would not have [que ter] goals for positions [de alto nível]”Dweck said.

According to her, the proposal was initially suggested by representatives of the Ministry of Racial Equality. “In the transition still, we agreed to make an assessment at the beginning of the year of how this framework is today, both in access, but also in senior management positions, to eventually assess goals and think of ways to guarantee greater diversity at the top”, stated.

According to the minister, the fact that Lula appointed blacks and women to head ministries ended up serving as an incentive for diversity to be replicated across the areas. Of the 37 folders, 10 are headed by self-declared blacks, and two by self-declared indigenous people. There are 26 men and 11 women.

Still, the overall picture is far from structural change. The minister does not rule out predicting quotas or at least targets for the number of black people in commission positions. “If you look at black women in senior management positions, it was a very low percentage, around 2%. So we have to try to understand that”, she said.

The diagnosis of the effectiveness of the quota law has been hampered in part because there has been a sharp reduction in the number of public tenders in recent years, given the worsening of the country’s fiscal situation.

Even so, a study by Enap (National School of Public Administration), published in 2021 in partnership with UnB (University of Brasília) and the Federal Executive, concluded that the results observed since the approval of the law demonstrated its insufficiency in promoting admission of black people in federal civil service.

In all competitions, except those aimed at the higher education teaching career, only 15.4% of the approved candidates who are registered in the Union’s personnel system (that is, actually entered the career) declared themselves or were identified as shareholders.

This first data already indicates that the percentage of the quota law would be breached, but there is a second point. There are black candidates who get good grades and end up being appointed to open competition. “It is expected that the number of appointees in vacancies reserved for blacks will then be less than the 15.4%”, says the study.

The work analyzed information from public tenders with opening notice published between June 2014, when the law came into force, until December 2019.

In addition to cross-referencing the approved lists with federal government personnel records, the researchers applied additional criteria, such as the date of entry into the position and whether or not you are a statutory employee. This was done to avoid accounting for “false positives”, that is, people who took the exam as a shareholder, but joined the public service later, through other modalities, such as commissioned positions or temporary contracts.

In the teaching career of higher education, the researchers were able to quantify the percentage of appointments exclusively for vacancies reserved for blacks, through the analysis of ordinances published in the DOU (Official Gazette). The index was a mere 0.53%.

Although the effects of the law were lower than expected, there was still an increase in the presence of blacks in the public service. “The quota policy is correlated with a 3% increase in the number of blacks in the public service”, says the Enap study.

Data from the Atlas of the Brazilian State, from Ipea (Institute of Applied Economic Research), show that, until 2013, blacks and browns represented a maximum of 32.3% of new civil servants each year. The percentage rose to 37.5% in 2015, shortly after the enactment of the quota law, and reached 43.5% in 2020, the most recent data available.

The problem, according to the Enap researchers, is that the guarantee of a floor in terms of vacancies for this group was not enough to lead to a significant increase in the share of black civil servants in the Federal Executive Branch.

When analyzing the total number of active federal employees, the numbers show that the expansion of racial diversity in the public service is still timid.

In 2013, a year before the publication of the norm, 32.6% of the employees of the Federal Executive were black or brown. The percentage rose to 35.1% in 2020, according to Ipea data.

The Statistical Panel of Personnel, maintained by the Executive Branch itself, shows that this participation was at 36.2% in January 2023.

Progress was also small among senior management positions. Although they make up more than a third of the staff force, blacks held less than a fifth of ministers or secretaries—classified as senior direction and advisory (the DAS) at levels 5 or 6 (the highest).

In 2013, 158 blacks held these positions, equivalent to 12% of the positions. In 2020, the group had 230 vacancies, or 17% of the total, according to Ipea data. The survey does not reach the new Lula government.

The Enap study cites other surveys to point out that there is also inequality between careers. Among diplomats, for example, a 2014 survey pointed out that blacks represent 6% of the total. Among Federal Revenue auditors, the percentage is 12%.

These studies conclude that the white man is the dominant profile in the public service and occupies the highest paid positions. In opposite conditions are black women –who are in lower paid positions and are concentrated in municipal administration.

Minister Esther Dweck also said that the government wants to encourage civil servants to respond to surveys and fill out self-declarations, which are currently optional, in order to draw a more reliable picture of diversity in public administration.

According to her, the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) has also been dialoguing in search of improving the data available on the profile of public servants.

Understand quotas in the federal public service

What is the quota law in functionalism?

Created in 2014, the law reserves for blacks 20% of the vacancies offered in public tenders in the federal public administration, autarchies, public foundations, public companies and mixed-capital companies controlled by the Union.

Who can use the mechanism?

Those who declare themselves black or brown when registering for the public tender can compete for the vacancies reserved for black candidates.

What if there is a false statement?

The candidate will be eliminated from the contest and, if nominated, will be subject to the annulment of his/her admission (after administrative procedure with contradictory and full defense), without prejudice to other applicable sanctions.

What was the deadline stipulated by law?

The law is valid for a period of ten years (that is, until June 2024).