Hiring training and capacity building services for Public Administration personnel: a brief analysis of Decision 439/98, issued by the Federal Court of Accounts - Brazil - Plenary Session

Abstract

The macro regulatory system that guides government contracts presents a great difficulty to those who attempt to apply it, when the need arises to hire staff training services, leading them more often than not to hiring courses and professors that fall short of expectations regarding quality, due to the incorrect notion that such services must be acquired by means of a bid. By contrast, the largest challenge faced by those that must interpret the guidelines lies in the complexity of certain concepts, such as those of “sole source service” and of “recognized expertise”, which are requirements for adopting the “no-bid contract” classification, which greatly increase the challenge of hiring the right provider for training services. Despite the fact that the Federal Court of Accounts has already closely examined this issue in its Plenary Decision 439/1998, which concluded that a bid process is not required for this type of contract, difficulties and challenges still persist. By re-examining this ruling, this paper aims to further clarify these concepts, as well as to address issues of a practical nature that arise on a daily basis at Government Schools and which have escaped the always profound examination of the Federal Court of Account’s Plenary Session. The purpose of all this is to see the bidding norms always being obeyed, without deviating from their objectives, but also with no loss of efficiency or effectiveness, considering that on-going training of staff members of the Public Administration is, without a shadow of a doubt, a way of improving the public services available to society.