Telework, production and public expenditure

what have we learned from Covid-19?

Abstract

The work investigate the behavior of variables associated with production and public spending at the State Secretariat of Finance, Espírito Santo, Brazil, between March and July 2020, considering the broad adherence to teleworking in the period - which reached 93.2% of the total workers of the institution. The phenomenon was one of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, which as a choice of local public policy involved social isolation and the need to adapt to not interrupt the provision of services. The research is quantitative, using a database extracted from institutional records of the main electronic systems used by the agency, with items of expenses analyzed using the Holt-Winters method and values ​​at constant prices. The results show that the production levels maintained an average behavior after the initial adaptation period and that the number of employees allocated in the period remained stable, with a slight downward trend. There was a reduction in spending items (water, electricity and travel) in relation to their historical values. The work contributes to research in the area by presenting an empirical study involving teleworking and public administration, in a unique context provided by the pandemic, collaborating with quantitative information on public spending and production, which corroborate with perceptions identified in previous qualitative research. Regarding the identification of evidence that can support the development of public policies, there are indications that a robust planning to rationalize the use of physical environments and structures could have caused a reduction in other items of public expenditure.