In compliance with its policy of releasing public notes for official communication, the presidency of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) hereby informs the Brazilian society about the conflicts of interests of individual and private parties concerning the institutional mission of the IBGE, the main survey institution in the country:

1 – The risks of manipulation in an official technical institution

The dissemination and repetition of falsehoods about the IBGE demands that we take firm action to make facts known and clear. Reprehensible attacks have been made by servants and ex-servants, unions and other entities who have been using the media to spread lies about the IBGE.

The unfair suspicion that data could be manipulated in a technical institution is a direct attack against the credibility of the IBGE, aggravated by the fact that the ones raising suspicion have full knowledge of the methodological rigor and professional ethics based on which the Institution has performed activities over its almost 90 years of existence. Given the seriousness of the case, the IBGE presidency will take as a model the Supreme Court of Brazil and of the Attorney’s General Office, which have taken judicial measures to combat misinformation and lies.

2- Return to office

In 2023, almost all the national statistical offices had already resumed face-to-face work. The IBGE was one of the exceptions, in spite of a detail: a significant part of the workforce in charge of data collection had been working face-to-face, full time, five days a week. The same was true for superintendents, branch directors, administrative workers and directors. So, a reduced number of professionals were still working from home full time then.

Return to office had been defined by former directors, step by step, since 2021, and the current board of directors adopted the same policy, having published Ordinance no 1023 on August 22, 2024, which provided for the return to office two days a week, considering the exceptions determined by directorates. This decision also took into account the need to prepare the institution to receive almost a thousand new civil servants hired by means of the latest National Unified Competitive Examination; by force of law, these will be working full time onsite under the supervision of coordinators and managers.

The Ordinance triggered unprecedented reactions from the union and from employees at the Avenida Chile Branch, located downtown Rio, who spoke in favor of their private interests, as they became upset after the end of remote work.

3 – Moving to the Serpro building

Following the best practices of application of public resources and in compliance with guidelines of the Racionaliza program, the current administration has worked to find a building owned by the federal government, with significant reduction of rents, to be used during the process of repair of IBGE buildings, so that the latter will be prepared to receive all the civil servants of the Institute, both current and future ones.

Measures for the recovery of workplaces owned by the IBGE have been adopted in all the branches in Brazil, as established by the federal government. After a long and detailed search for buildings all over Rio de Janeiro, the Executive Directorate of the IBGE, by means of its technical team formed by engineers and architects, found a building, property of the Federal Data Processing System (Serpro), located in the neighborhood of Horto Florestal and in excellent structural conditions to be used by the IBGE without the need of improvements. The temporary transfer of civil servants who are currently working on Avenida Chile will represent approximately 84% saved out of a total of R$ 15 million spent annually on rent and maintenance costs. These resources will be employed in the remodeling of branches downtown, and in Maracanã, on General Canabarro street, where the upgrade is scheduled to start this month.

Nevertheless, despite the clear and substantial gains this temporary change will bring, some civil servants from Avenida Chile and from the union have shared untruthful information about access and work conditions at Horto, a place that will have a special system for the transportation of workers, connecting the building to the main street in the neighborhood where one can find restaurants and local shops.

It is worth of mention that servants in this branch will be working face-to-face only two days a week. In this respect, the conflict between public and private, individual interests becomes evident.

4 – IBGE+ Foundation

The process of recognition of the IBGE as a Science and Technology Institution, and the subsequent legal constitution of a support foundation, aimed at non-budgetary fundraising,  essential for the urgent modernization and strengthening of the IBGE, has been highly publicized in Notes and documents available on the IBGE website and on the the foundation website.

This particular aspect demands further clarification given the recent claim of the national union of IBGE civil servants (ASSIBGE) that the creation of the Foundation was not informed to the Board of Directors – highest deliberation body in the Institute – mostly composed of IBGE civil servants. Not only did all directors take part in related discussions with federal agencies and within the Board itself, but they also approved the entirety of documents and signed the minutes of creation of the IBGE+ Foundation, approved by unanimous voting in an act documented in texts and images and registered in a registry office.

The IBGE+ Foundation has also been the target of a misinformation campaign, possibly because it has revealed conflicts of interest inside the IBGE, facts that have been examined by the Prosecutor's Office, as shown in Official Letter no. 503/2024 PR-RJ/GMGBA, in Annex I and annexed document, in reply to Official Letter no. 6/2024/PF-GAB/PFE-IBGE/PGF/AGU of the Prosecutor's Office within the IBGE, available in Annex II, and corroborated by the IBGE Human Resources Department, Technical Note no. 45/2024/DE/CRH/IBGE, available in Annex III, besides internal control instances of the Institute. Possibly, as a result of the aforementoned facts, the current adminstration has faced such hostile reactions. 

5 – The IBGE advances

The current presidency took over an institution that had had 7 presidents in eight years, an experience that evidences institutional instability as never seen before in the history of the principal public survey institute in Brazil, a period marked by reduced budget, lack of competitive examinations for recomposition of teams, vacancy of directors and interrupted surveys.

Actions aimed at the recovery of compensation and of infrastructure, recomposition and training of technical bodies, and recovery of national and international protagonism by the IBGE show that, under the current administration, the Institute is advancing, promoting the renewal of professional teams, superintendencies and directorates, in an attempt to obtain resources and find alternatives towards modernization and the promotion of civil servants. The IBGE has been on track to celebrate its 90th anniversary engaged in the mission of portraying Brazil with necessary information for the knowledge of reality and the exercise of citizenship.

*The Racionaliza Program is managed by the Federal Property Secretariat (SPU), in partnership with the Secretariat of Management and Innovation (SEGES), both of which are under the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI), aiming at the shared and optimized occupation of buildings for special use by bodies and entities linked to direct Federal Public Administration, its autarchies and foundations, owned by the Federal Government or third parties.