*Per Camila Cristina Murta
Corruption and inefficiency are associated but distinct phenomena. On the one hand, corruption is a clear breach of the rules of Administrative Law, generating a loss to the treasury, in return for carrying out the illicit act. Inefficiency is related to the misuse of resources, which generates unnecessary expenses, financial or otherwise, for the Government.
Although inefficiency does not receive the same attention as corruption, some studies show that it can be even more impactful.
A comparative analysis of Latin American and Caribbean countries on public expenditure reveals inefficiencies and waste. In the case of Brazil, these inefficiencies can represent a loss of up to US$68 billion per year, or the equivalent of 3.9 percent of the country's GDP. This means that there is ample room to improve the services offered to the population without imply an increase of public spending.
To promote more efficient public spending in Brazil, the study by the Inter-American Development Bank – IDB suggests, among other recommendations, to improve the management of public investment and strengthen public procurement systems.
Under these two aspects, it is worth contextualizing that, in Brazil, a legalistic approach predominates that gives greater priority to compliance to the detriment of efficiency and results; that there are weaknesses in the strategic prioritization of investment, a lack of standardized guidelines on project evaluation and selection, and that to carry out more efficient management of public investments, managers could make use of automated government budgeting solutions, with the function of supporting the scenario planning, investment prioritization, project management and results management.
The low efficiency of selection models and monitoring of contractual execution, combined with acts of fraud and corruption, are detractors from the effectiveness of the amounts spent on public contracts. This is a major challenge to be overcome
And the answer to this challenge lies in understanding that, as of Law 14,133/2021, public entities should no longer pursue the purchase of technology, but rather the purchase of or for innovation. The new era of data calls for the measurement of technical specifications, combined with the best price.
And what do I mean by that? That governments need to adapt to the virtualization of society, and, therefore, review the models for acquiring ICT services, as the path that adheres to the transformations experienced by the digital society.
A new legal bidding model is in place. Public purchases were valued for results and innovation, new contracting mechanisms were presented, and the implementation of public governance was established as the objective of senior management. Therefore, it is the public manager's duty to understand the changing times and absorb the implementations of the New Tender Law, with a focus on providing assertive, efficient and inclusive public services.
However, what I see is a glaring resistance from public managers in making use of this new bidding tool, out of conservatism and, out of attachment to inefficient and unreasonable bureaucratic control routines.
I conclude, therefore, that a change in mentality is the way to promote efficient public purchases of ICT and generate public value for society.
Camila Cristina Murta is leader of the ABES Public Procurement Working Group
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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