Individual capabilities of the Brazilian agribusiness public bureaucracy

Abstract This article analyzes the individual capabilities of government employees working in Superior Management and Advisory (SMA) positions in the Brazilian federal bureaucracy regarding the solution of problems in the agribusiness sector. The data were obtained from the Integrated Personnel Administration System (IPAS). Three proxies were defined to build an analytical construct to reflect the individual capabilities of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply’s (MALS) personnel: political, operational, and analytical competencies. The proxies were analyzed using a quantitative-descriptive approach. The study observed the bureaucrat’s turnover from 1999 to 2012. Subsequently, using the Mann-Whitney U test for independent samples, data from 1998 and 2018 were compared to verify changes in operational and analytical competencies, represented by the leadership capacity and ability to process information, respectively. The results showed that the individual capability of MALS’s personnel remained unchanged, indicated by the permanence of tenured employees in high-level positions and the maintenance of the level of formal education, which did not evolve over time.