| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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When FNDE was still working with the procurement for the school buses, in 2008, it had access to a school furniture bidding, which happened in the state of São Paulo. That was run by FDE (Educational Development Foundation), a similar agency as FNDE. Therefore, this first moment already provided the idea for a national tendering, for public schools.
By the signature of a Technical Agreement between both institutions, on 24 March 2009, this Autarchy had access to FDE design material, ergonomic measures for different sizes of school chairs and desks, beyond tables for disabled students and teachers.
At that moment, FNDE hired an important research center, for a market study. It was seen thus the furniture industry is organized in clusters and had traditional techniques. This already represented a challenge, but FNDE published anyway an edict, where providers would have to transport the products to a closer place of themselves, respecting the industry reality. However, the product to be delivered had to be the same, in the whole country. Among the actions taken and implemented steps, some deserve to be highlighted, as it follows:
a) In March 2009, FNDE signed a technical agreement with FDE, about school furnishing design.
b) FNDE hired FGV for a study market. That, in April 2009, analyzed the furniture industry and Brazil, and proposed tendering possibilities. It took into consideration big and small firms, and locations where products should be sent, among others.
c) In the same period, FNDE did a public hearing, where representatives from the furniture industry, the Municipalities´ Union (UNDIME), FGV and MEC discussed about the conceptual model, with its furnishing quality, delivery and price issues.
d) The edict was released, and the procurement happened in June 2009. The average price, around U$ 78.00, was already slightly smaller than what was available on market. This was possible due to its potential economies of scale. Winners should provide prototypes, in order to have them as touchstone for the products to be delivered.
e) Municipalities, schools, and other federative and public institutions could then take advantage of the Tender Minute, in order to join and establish the amount to be bought. This happened during 2010.
f) The provider manufactures the furniture piece, and delivers it to the buyer.
g) INMETRO, the national standardization agency, analyzes randomly the equipment to be delivered, in order to check if that is in accordance to established parameters, in terms of safety, ergonomics and materials used.
The methodology was useful also to improve certain aspects of the own process. The next buying, in 2011, came with design improvements. In 2012, INMETRO established as mandatory those ergonomic aspects, for the whole country. This shows the quality achieved by FNDE, when offering those products to public educational facilities.
At last, it is worth taking a look at FNDE school furniture biddings webpage (http://www.fnde.gov.br/portaldecompras/index.php/produtos/mobiliario-escolar/apresentacao-mobiliario-escolar). It is possible to see that the Autarchy bidding processes have been improving. This happens especially in terms of product quality and other equipment pieces, but there are also the guidelines for the municipalities and the providers, so they can use FNDE system related to procurements (SIGARP).
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Considering a policy like that, with sound federative issues, it is natural to find many stakeholders involved. In the civil service, together with FNDE, there was the Ministry of Education. From there, the former Minister, Mr. Fernando Haddad, and his Executive Secretary, Mr. Henrique Paim, supported the initiative from the beginning. From FNDE itself, its former president, Mr. José Freitas, was at that time in charge of the public tendering department.
Other public institutions participated, as well, as the Foundation for Educational Development, from São Paulo state. It dealt with the school furniture design, and it provided its data to FNDE. Associated to material and quality control, there was INMETRO, too.
Related to standards, there was also a non-profit organization, the Brazilian National Standards Organization (Portuguese acronym: ABNT), which represents the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the country. Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), a respected public administration center, examined the furniture industry in Brazil.
For the procurement, there were many providers from the that industry in Brazil, among them the most representative ones. And, as buyers, there came roughly two-thirds of the municipalities, all Brazilian States, beyond parent & teacher associations and universities.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The financial resources used for the strategy building came straight from FNDE regular budget. For the procurement itself, concerning the municipalities which take part on them, the Ministry of Education provides some funding, which can be used in biddings as those. However, this does not happen every time for every good to be acquired. This possibility occurs only whenever there is a previous planning, and it is proper only for definite goods. Besides that, towns have to possess a positive fiscal situation, for having the right to apply to those resources.
Regarding human resources, those came also from the Autarchy. Other institutions contributed with their technical staff, too, as FDE, FGV, MEC and INMETRO. Technological means are part of the initiative from the start, once tenderings are done nowadays on line, via a Ministry of Planning webpage (https://www.comprasnet.gov.br/). However, another important system for the process was added to the process, from 2011 on. It managed to grasp the same steps as before, but electronically. Thus, from the moment entities take advantage of the procurement price register minute, they can go on line and start their buying processes. The system is called Price Register Management System (in Portuguese, “Sistema de Gestão de Atas de Registro de Preços” – SIGARP, homepage: http://www.fnde.gov.br/sigarpweb/index.php). This system, once more, was developed by FNDE technologic staff with its own budget. There, every stakeholder of the process, from the public area and the private sector take part.
All of this, seen as a whole, shows certainly efficiency. Moreover, it comes together with a committed attitude for making a public policy work. It is relevant at last to remember that the private sector came voluntarily to the public hearings, contributing for the synergy of this initiative.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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First of all, an exceptional output has to do with efficiency, which passes through the whole procedure. From the moment there is a single national and centralized bidding, there takes place also economies of scale, compared to many administrative processes, with their corresponding effort and costs. And this is taking into consideration only the bureaucratic side. When one thinks about the product price itself, efficiency is certainly there. Given the national scope, providers can offer a cheaper final price. This happened, indeed, since the first school furniture procurement. The average price was around U$ 78.00, slightly smaller than what the market then offered (around U$ 80.00). Nowadays, prices go on falling: the average price so far for the furniture pieces, once the current bid-bond is still running, is about U$ 72.00.
Transparency is another point. Not only has it demonstrated the rightness of the initiative, but it provides also conditions to every institution to learn it by seeing and taking part. This makes the path smoother, in special to those organizations which do not have the best conditions (financial and administrative) to carry a tendering process on. Besides, transparency provides elements for everyone to make suggestions and monitor, as well. This last one is especially available in some phases, as: during the bidding itself (www.comprasnet.gov.br); after it, when institutions take advantage of price register minute bidding (http://www.fnde.gov.br/sigarpweb/index.php/relatorio/relatorio-pregao2/list), and for other news or even past buyings (http://www.fnde.gov.br/portaldecompras/index.php/produtos/mobiliario-escolar).
A high-quality and ergonomic furniture is another important achievement. The equipment provided is built strictly following human factor parameters. It is offered in diverse sizes, and proper materials. The initiative demands a prototype, for comparison purposes and for working as a touchstone. And it costs at the present time cheaper than an alike furniture, which used to be sold to schools before this initiative – and without the same present excellence, nonetheless. Moreover, this initiative gave conditions for another electronic bidding, related to cradles and mattresses to public school nurseries.
Finally, an important soft skill comes out; partnership building, and its enhancing in the long term. When public institutions work together, they are able to develop a further practice improvement. The soundest example is the norm published by INMETRO. Because of it, school furniture has to be produced following strict parameters. This means, above of all, safety for everyone.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The initiative can be supervised mostly through a system, linked to FNDE tenderings. It is called Price Register Management System (in Portuguese, “Sistema de Gestão de Atas de Registro de Preços” – SIGARP). This is an online space where stakeholders, as federative entities (States, the Federal District and Municipalities), public schools, associations, public institutions, providers of goods and services and FNDE deal with the buying process.
SIGARP has the primary goal of carrying out the management of Price Register minutes, organized by this agency. There, applications of federative entities, after the bidding, start to be analyzed. After their approval (considering legal and funding conditions), there is the contract signature between the public institution and the provider, as well as the product delivery. FNDE role is handling the practice.
It is possible to have other organizations participating, too, in the tendering process. In this situation, cash transfers from the Ministry of Education are not allowed. That can go only to federative entities, which have shown an educational plan and have their fiscal situation in accordance to the law. However, it is always feasible paying with own resources.
The system shows the process of each public buying on real-time mode. It is possible to see there when and how many school furnishing sets were bought. This can be seen in past biddings, as currently. It enables also reports, as for time period and participant entity. And it has a Public Consultation link (http://www.fnde.gov.br/sigarpweb/index/consultapublica). Information is displayed there only in Portuguese, but it is possible for anyone to follow the performance of a tender course, concerned, for instance, to a specific range of date.
SIGARP shows that during 2013, from January until November, more than 8,000 acquired sets of school furniture, throughout the country. Total purchases authorized for the first half of the year to date is U$ 0.5 billion. The Northeast Region, the one in Brazil which unfortunately traditionally holds the worst social indicators, is currently participating with almost 30% of the buying. The current tendering goes until August 2014.
Also, concerning the furnishing quality, it is presently being prepared a group for appraising this, with lay evaluators from FNDE staff. In addition to those traditional tests, as material resistance, done by INMETRO and alike agencies, they will visit factories and distributing places, for checking products, in terms of size, for instance. This will make available another possibility of monitoring.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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At its beginning, the initiative had some assistance, once FDE, from São Paulo, transferred its design, via a technical agreement. The procurement strategy was already established, too, and having the process done let it show some advantages, as well as it pointed out to differences related to the offer of another good.
Moreover, because of the volume of acquisitions, and also the stronger need of handling with those, made FNDE creating a system in 2011, where all steps for the requesting could be done on line, instead via mail, as before.
The furniture industry, on its side, had to suffer adaptations. For instance, it had to deal with logistic issues, when delivering to facilities, many times quite distant from its industry place. In 2012, too, providers had to start adapting themselves to offer that in accordance to the ergonomic measures for school equipment, which became mandatory for the sector production area, since last September.
Beyond that, it is valuable to mention the effort of FNDE personnel, who many times learn by doing important issues. As written before, with the aid of an expert, FNDE is training its staff, in order to be able to make a non-specialist analysis. There is even some news concerning this at www.fnde.gov.br/portaldecompras/index.php/portal/informes/item/655-controle-de-qualidade-mobiliario-escolar. The group will present reports, in which there will be the product conformity analysis. With this, it is feasible to perceive the staff members commitment, who try to apprehend the public buying cycle, with and its social consequences.
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