Institutional governance of ANATEL and the “rolling door” phenomenon

Abstract

The study intends to investigate the academic-professional profile and the trajectory carried out by the members of the Board of Directors of ANATEL since its creation in 1997 until 2020, through the phenomenon of the “revolving door”. There are records that address issues related to the profile of directors of regulatory agencies using comparative criteria between some of the Brazilian autarchies, without, however, specifically going into the academic-professional profile and the trajectory after public office. A database was created with information collected through the curriculum vitae, collected from the Federal Senate, as well as other elements that are available on the ANATEL website and on the business social network - Linkedin, in addition to entries available on the internet and on news portals. Three distinct moments are identified in relation to the profile of the Board of Directors of ANATEL, the first being made up of engineers, not politicians, coming from the Ministry of Communications and the Telebrás System, who, after leaving their position at the Agency, went to perform professional functions in regulated companies and/or set up consultancies to provide specialized services to regulated companies, that is, they went through the revolving door in a typical demonstration of economic capture. The next moment, in the phase of institutional consolidation, ANATEL experienced political capture, as the Board of Directors was made up predominantly of politicians, who, after leaving office, returned to functions of free appointment in the public sector itself. As of 2018, nominations acquire another profile: ANATEL candidates, not politicians, with specialized technical training. The investigation into ANATEL’s institutional governance structure, specifically the Board of Directors, added to the model of privatization of the telecommunications sector and the normative set, allowed the occurrence of the phenomenon of the “revolving door” and, it foments the reflection, although empirical, about potential developments in the light of the theory of capture.

 Keywords: Board of Directors. ANATEL. Profile. Trajectory. Revolving door.