Brazil’s Federal Inspector General’s Office (CGU) proposes that the current four-month “quarantine” (waiting period) for former officeholders to be allowed to exercise activities of a similar nature in the private sector be extended to two years.
“This is a relationship that lies at the heart of the promiscuity that can exist – and often does exist – between what is public and what is private. Especially in a society like ours, which has a tradition of patronage when it comes to holding public office,” the Minister of Control and Transparency, Waldir Pires, head of the CGU, observed today.
According to the CGU’s draft bill, the list of officeholders affected by this norm would also be expanded to include: Ministers of State; Army, Navy, and Air Force commanders; holders of special posts (such as directors of government financial institutions); presidents and directors of state and mixed-capital enterprises; and holders of commissioned positions at levels 6, 5, and 4.
The law would also cover holders of regular positions or jobs with responsibilities related to audit, revenue collection, regulation, supervision, planning, budget or management, finance, taxation, government legal activities, financial market investments, police activities, and other activities related to police powers.
The current “Quarantine Law” is limited to members of the Government Council; the National Monetary Council; the Government Council’s Chamber of Economic Policy, Chamber of Foreign Trade, and the Chamber of Foreign Trade’s Management Committee; and the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee.
According to the Minister, the CGU is endeavoring to make the quarantine more ample than what is determined in the current law.
“I also believe that people should not be paid when they’re quarantined,” he commented, explaining that, “in a country with difficulties like ours, whoever accepts a function knows that it is a function that implies future strings. So, you take it because you want to.”
On the other hand, there are many positions that fall within the sphere of activities of career civil servants.
“So, when they leave their commissioned positions, they go back to retirement or resume their regular careers.”
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil
