States fail in server data transparency – 07/15/2023 – Power

Brazilian states are still floundering in the transparency of strategic server data to optimize people management, indicates an unprecedented survey by FGV researchers at the request of the Lemann Foundation and the Movimento Gente à Frente, which discusses ways to improve public policies.

According to the study, the transparency portals do not disclose disaggregated data on education, race and gender of all state employees, ranging from leaders in portfolios to those associated with the core activity, such as teachers and nurses. The exception, at least partially, is Paraná, which informs the gender of all servers.

Most states also do not provide information about the responsibilities and the starting date of work for those who occupy leadership positions in the secretariats.

This is the fourth article in the Public Professional for Democracy series, which discusses themes linking the responsibilities of governments and their servants in protecting institutions, seeking to respond to social concerns. The special is part of the Vida Pública publishing group, a partnership between Sheet and Instituto República.org.

The analysis was carried out by researchers from FGV CPDOC (Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation), between August and December of last year. The work was based on the transparency portals, where there is data on the entire body of servers, and on the legislation of the administrative structure of the states, which informs which are the positions of leadership in each of the folders.

The researchers could not locate the human resources law of Espírito Santo, nor were they able to access the data in the portals of Tocantins, Bahia, Mato Grosso and Rio de Janeiro.

Matheus Nunes, coordinator of Knowledge, Data and Research at the Lemann Foundation and one of the authors of the survey, says that this type of data helps to create more effective methods for managing servers, which culminates in better results for public policies.

From these statistics, it would be possible to understand the skills of a team and the profile of its members to develop recruitment and performance analysis strategies. In addition to helping to guide the leadership of the bodies, the availability of data allows society to monitor management, increasing social participation.

“People are the main tools for better public services. By understanding their profile, we can see how the state works and what are the main gaps to design more effective interventions”, says Nunes.

Although some state governments report all civil servants by race and gender, this format does not allow for a more detailed look at the civil servants’ profile, as experts point out.

According to Fernanda Campagnucci, executive director of Open Knowledge Brasil, disaggregated data, in which each baseline corresponds to a person, allows for comparative analyzes that help to understand, for example, the salary given to women or the number of non-white people in leadership positions. When only the total is available, it is not possible to know what positions these public servants occupy and what their level of education is.

The importance of information about race and gender is due to the recent growth of discussions about representativeness, according to Matheus Nunes. He claims that more diverse teams can formulate more effective policies, designed to better include the social group to which they belong.

In the survey, the researchers identified good practices in the states. One of them is Paraná, whose legislation informs in detail the attributions of leaderships. The state is also the only one to provide disaggregated data on the gender of civil servants. In Alagoas, the law shows the prerequisites for occupying a leadership position in the government.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services launched the Personnel Observatory, which gathers records such as race, ethnicity and gender of federal administration employees.

Jessika Moreira, a member of the Movimento Gente à Frente, says that the states have been influenced by the Union and intend to reverse the situation, investing in data collection for people management.

She cites the example of the Government of Ceará, which launched the Public Leaders Management Program in June this year. The project seeks to change people management at the state level, with new methods for attracting employees.

Moreira states that state policies can encourage municipalities to collect information and, based on this, develop their own policy with an emphasis on civil servants.

“Governments that manage to deliver quality public policies are also guided by evidence, with a more qualified decision-making process”, he says.

Structuring as a path to transparency

The survey by the group of FGV researchers also found that there is no naming pattern for public positions, which makes it difficult to compare states. A servant can have the same duties, in a secretariat with the same purpose, and even so the name of the position can be different according to the state.

Upon detecting that the information in the legislation was not enough, the researchers analyzed the regulations in three areas: management, health and education, chosen because they have a greater budget and impact on the lives of the population.

This restriction was made because it was a larger survey, which required an analysis of internal regulations. The objective was to verify which were the leadership positions in each of these folders, reaching 7,250.

By preparing the disclosure of data for their transparency portals, public bodies are able to have a more organized base for internal consumption, says Fernanda Campagnucci.

With more structured information, they need to establish a data governance policy, which considers internal and external actors and purposes.

For this, Fernanda explains that it is necessary to map systems, professionals responsible for them and potential users. Based on this analysis, information access strategies are created.

“It’s like a long trail, in which the transparency policy is the end. To get to it, you have to go through a series of phases that are going to revolutionize the way you deal with data internally, because you’re going to need to have a end-to-end view.”

She states that, in general, transparency does not depend on the federal entity’s resources or the size of the population, but on the will of elected leaders. Therefore, the importance of understanding the need for open data, which drives the institutionalization of a transparency policy.

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See how data can improve people management in the public sector

Based on information about server skills, it is possible to design more targeted attraction policies with an emphasis on the needs of each team

Data allow the creation of indicators on management progress, in addition to facilitating the monitoring of results for each folder

They help point out good practices and think about development programs for teams based on information about employee skills

They outline a profile of leaders that can serve as a basis for boosting measures of inclusion and plurality of people in the sector

Source: Survey carried out by researchers from FGV CPDOC (Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation), at the request of the Lemann Foundation and the Movimento Gente à Frente