The Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, wants the career plan of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) to appear on the list of actions that President Lula (PT) intends to present to the National Congress within the first 100 days of his term in office. The representative spoke about the subject during a conversation with a group of workers from the autarchy who protested in front of the folder’s building, in Brasília (DF), to put pressure on the government. Guajajara recalled that the transition work group had listed the career plan as one of the priority goals that should be included in the new management’s script.
“When we took office, we continued with this point in the ministry’s priority for referral and we also put it on the agenda as our points that need to be among the first 100 days of government. So, from here we forwarded it”, he said, while also stating that he had delivered the career plan proposal to Lula for the government’s evaluation.
“It may not have the priority it needs, and we need to be talking. We really want to unlock this agenda and (hopefully) have it forwarded by the end of the year, leaving the Executive and being guided by the Legislative. You know that there are some steps to be followed”, amended Sonia, referring to the servers.
The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) handed the president a draft provisional measure (MP) on the matter. If the idea is accepted at the top of the government, it will need to be approved by the Legislature so that the plan can be included in the 2023 budget. , since the legal nature of these bodies is the same as that of Funai, since they are autarchy.
Funai employees during action for category rights in 2022 / Evaristo Sa/AFP
Still according to MPI calculations, the MP would require investments in the order of BRL 315.5 million next year, with gradual increases that would reach BRL 317.7 million in 2026. $271 million. The measure would reach the current 1,343 active servants, the 1,684 retirees and the 807 pension providers. Sonia Guajajara says that valuing Funai employees would also be a way of benefiting indigenous peoples, the autarchy’s target audience.
“We are in the same fight. I know this need well. I know that what does not serve the Funai server well will explode directly as a consequence there at the end, in the territories of the indigenous peoples, which is the reason why we are here to fight, protect the territories, guarantee the security of the servers, ensure the protection of indigenous peoples,” said the minister.
Campaign
Currently campaigning for the creation of the career plan, the servers are running against time to try to get the agenda in a short period of time. This is because, for it to be valid next year, the measure needs to be included in the Annual Budget Law (LOA) 2024, but it also needs to face a long journey in the federal government, also passing through the Advocacy-General of the Union (AGU), Casa Civil and Ministry of Planning and Budget (MPO). In the draft made by the MPI, the folder points to the date of May 31 as a reference due to the schedule that governs the processing of the LOA project in Congress.
“We are urgent because the MP would have to be sent to the Chamber within that period. We are working both with deputies to try to convince them to vote positively when the MP reaches the Chamber and working internally in the government, putting pressure on some management bodies so that the opinions are favorable and that there is a more certain will of the Lula government to do this contribution of a career plan for Funai”, says employee Gustavo Peixoto, who works at the agency and is also linked to the association Indigenistas Associados (INA).
The body’s career plan has been under debate at the Confederation of Workers in the Federal Public Service (Condsef) since 2004. The entity’s legal director, Edison Cardoni, points out that the lack of a career plan adds to the context of illness caused by servers due to overwork and the accumulation of problems that historically mistreated Funai, especially in recent years, when the agency’s budget and policies were dehydrated by the Bolsonaro administration, also marked by a context of institutional harassment of civil servants.
Last year, the category even triggered a strike due to a number of factors, including the lack of security for the execution of the work of the servers, especially those who work in regions of great agrarian conflicts, as is the case of the Amazon. The stoppage movement surfaced during the search for the bodies of indigenist Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips, both murdered in the Vale do Javari region, in Amazonas.
Funai employees in concentration during a strike that took place in 2022, in Brasília / Cristiane Sampaio / Brasil de Fato
Cardoni emphasizes that this scenario generates yet another problem, the evasion of the servers, who end up migrating to other more attractive careers. Currently, the body has 1,353 permanent employees and 1,820 vacant positions, the latter being a result of evasion, the lack of permanent contests and also the wave of retirements registered in recent years.
“There are places (in the autarchy) where 20 people entered in the last contests and today there are three left. So it’s a very difficult situation. The career plan is fundamental for Funai’s structuring agenda and also for there to be a public competition that retains people, so that people don’t drop out”, argues Cardoni.
Challenges
Funai employee Mônica Carneiro, who serves on the board of the Union of Workers in the Federal Public Service in the Federal District (Sindsep-DF), points out that the lack of employees increases the challenge for the autarchy to manage all 680 indigenous lands in which it operates, which account for 14% of the national territory. MPI data show that the agency has, in addition to its headquarters in Brasília, 293 decentralized units across the country. Together, they add up to 2,306 employees, of which 1,343 are public servants and the rest are outsourced or commissioned.
The challenge becomes even greater given the vast scope of the authority’s powers, ranging from land demarcation studies to monitoring policies aimed at indigenous people, who are distributed among 305 different peoples across the country. “The problem of Funai and the structuring of the indigenist policy will not be solved with palliative policies because we have a problem of chronic weakening of Funai’s workforce”, points out Mônica Carneiro, when referring to a report produced by the Federal Audit Court (TCU) still in 2015.
The document is the result of an audit that drew attention to a series of deficiencies that, according to the TCU, brought risks to the body. In addition to highlighting the insufficient number of civil servants and evasion, the court mentioned issues such as low regularity in hiring staff, difficulty in securing civil servants, especially in more remote workplaces, low pay, lack of incentives to compensate for adverse work situations and for civil servants to seek specific qualifications in the indigenous area, in addition to other points.
The rise of the indigenous agenda, related to the strengthening of the political movement in the segment itself and also to the change of government, has helped to boost the articulation of Funai employees. “This change in political posture was greatly desired by Funai employees because it recognizes and values the indigenous presence in the country. Now, we understand that just changing the discourse and political posture is something that does not solve the problem. This has to be accompanied by a structuring of the body that implements and qualifies public policies for indigenous peoples”, argues Mônica Carneiro.
Editing: Vivian Virissimo
