The public administration’s ‘engine room’ in the fight against COVID-19

Abstract The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil requires integrated and coordinated strategies and actions involving different public policy agencies in the local, state, and federal governments, delivering essential services and emergency programs. Such services rely on public administration’s functional areas, designated in this work as the “engine room.” The study uses this particular intra-organizational dimension to describe and analyze the administrative functions in the adjustment of the death care services in a municipality, as the final link in the fight against the SARS-CoV-2. The empirical locus is the death care service of São Paulo, Brazil. The service was chosen because it is a public sector monopoly and São Paulo because of the municipality’s size - one of the biggest in the world. The research adopted documentary analysis and interviews with local public managers, examining the back office of public administration focusing on finance, human resources, processes and information technology, procurement and contracts, logistics and operations, and communication and marketing. The study discusses the mechanisms of public organizations in the context of the pandemic. It leads to a reflection on the key points of such a health crisis considering different realities, recognizing the limits of analyzing an ongoing phenomenon.

摘要 巴西抗击新冠疫情（COVID-19 pandemic）需整合地方、州及联邦各级政府的各类公共政策机构，协同推进战略与行动，以提供基本公共服务与应急项目。此类服务依托公共行政的职能领域，本研究将其界定为“核心运作中枢（engine room）”。本研究借助这一特定的组织内部维度，对某市调整丧葬服务的行政职能展开描述与分析——该服务是抗击严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2型（SARS-CoV-2）防控链条的最终环节。本次实证研究的场景为巴西圣保罗市的丧葬服务部门。选择该丧葬服务，是因其属于公共部门垄断范畴；选择圣保罗市，则因其为全球规模最大的城市之一。本研究采用文献分析法与地方公共管理者访谈法，聚焦财政、人力资源、流程与信息技术、采购与合同、物流与运营以及传播与营销等领域，对公共行政的后台运作机制展开剖析。本研究探讨了疫情背景下公共组织的运作机制，并结合不同现实情境对此次卫生危机的核心要点展开反思，同时也意识到对仍在发生的现象进行分析存在局限性。