Is Re-engineering Possible in the Public Sector? A Brazilian Case Study

This paper describes an attempt to re-engineer a large public sector organization in Brazil. The organization, a civil engineering company, had a major role in a large government construction project of high political relevance, by the time the re-engineering attempt was started. As a result of the re-engineering attempt, the organization had its IT infrastructure significantly improved. The access to IT was decentralized by the downsizing of the applications from a mainframe to a local area network. The large construction project for which the organization had been hired by the government was successfully completed. However, no radical changes in the organization's business processes had resulted, despite the US $8 million invested in the re-engineering attempt. Moreover, even though some processes had been automated, almost no staff reduction was effected. The lack of layoffs meant that even the increase in efficiency in those processes, which by no means was radical, was not realized. This paper analyses this case of ‘successful failure’ and its implications for re-engineering in the public sector.