The Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) approved today (7) a bill that suspends until the end of 2021 the validity periods of public tenders approved before the covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the validity periods of these competitions only start to run from 2022.
Approved by the Chamber of Deputies in November, PL 1,676/2020 was proposed by deputies Batista (PV-DF) and Rejane Dias (PT-PI). At CAE, the matter received a favorable opinion from the rapporteur, senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA). The project goes to the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission (CCJ).
According to the text, the deadlines for approved tenders will be suspended until March 20, 2020 — the date on which Brazil recognized the state of public calamity due to the pandemic. According to the project, the validity period of the contests runs again on January 1, 2022. This is because the Federative Program to Combat Coronavirus (Complementary Law 173, of 2020) prohibited an increase in personnel expenses until the end of 2021, which prevented the nomination of successful candidates.
Under the current rule, the period of validity of public examinations was suspended until the end of the period of public calamity decreed by the Union, which occurred on December 31, 2020. However, the admission or hiring of personnel was prohibited by the three levels of government up to December 31, 2021 — except for, among others, replacements arising from vacancies in permanent or lifetime positions.
The new wording harmonizes the two deadlines, establishing that this last date will also be valid for the suspension of the validity of the competitions. In addition, the communication of the suspension is no longer the responsibility of the organizers of the competitions and passes to the contracting bodies.
According to Jaques Wagner, the PL “will avoid an almost certain judicialization by the approved candidates”. According to the senator, currently, even under Complementary Law 173, replacements arising from vacancies in permanent or lifetime positions are admitted. In practice, therefore, only those admissions or hirings that represent an increase in the number of civil servants are prohibited. “It is reasonable that the transfer of this increase to a future date, already in a post-pandemic context, with the normalization of the financial situation of the three levels of government, preserves the rights of the candidates. Evidently, the proposed increase will only occur after updating the budget schedules of each entity – said Wagner.
The senator recalls that the Senate is analyzing a similar bill. Bill 4.109/2020, by Senator Weverton (PDT-MA), suspends the validity of public tenders that have already been approved until the end of the prohibition on the increase in personnel expenses.
