Eduardo Carvalho Nepomuceno Alencar, Ph.D, MA, MBA, PMP, Prince2

Hello, my name is Eduardo and I am an economist and Anatel employee with more than 20 years of experience in managing complex projects in the Brazilian government sector, holding CHRO and CFO level functions, including advisor to secretaries and ministers of state in the Presidency of the Republic, Comptroller General of the Union, Ministry of Planning, Chamber of Foreign Trade (CAMEX) and National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anisio Teixeira (Inep) and Ministry of Infrastructure.

I hold a Ph.D. in Public Policy (Social Ecology) from the University of California, Irvine, and I am currently Head of Technical Advisory at Anatel.

I am passionate about exploring human and technological capabilities to deliver better public services. My work is focused on using data analytics to improve government performance.

I have a solid background in project management, econometric analysis, synthetic control models, and business analysis, and have mentored several graduate students at the University of California, Irvine.

In summary, I am a highly motivated professional passionate about using data and technology to improve government performance.

Research interests: Public Policy Planning and Evaluation, Regulation, Governance, and Machine Learning.

Please find my CV here.

Recent publications and presentations

• DATA GOVERNANCE MATURITY MODELS, 2023 [PDF]

Ensuring the quality, integrity, and security of data is essential for organizations. Let's explore the main maturity models for data governance.  Topics presented: What is data governance?, Data governance benefits, Main data governance maturity models, Challenges in implementing data governance.

There is no single solution that solves every organization's problems, but sharing experiences speeds up the process of identifying the way forward.

• DETECTANDO FRAUDES NOS SISTEMAS DE REGISTRO DE PREÇOS. Alencar, E. (2022). 50° Encontro Nacional de Economia (ANPEC 2022), Fortaleza [PDF]

Based on 2019 procurement data composed of almost 1.5 million observations, this study employs Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to investigate how latent profiles are defined to represent behavior in the Price Registration minutes. LCA approach brought the possibility of identifying some characteristics that can suggest or direct the efforts of the control bodies in identifying illegal cases. From the LCA with binary and continuous variables, the seven-class solution provided the optimal fit for our data, with the lowest BIC value and a high entropy value. The seven relevant factors that increase the risks of renting price registration drafts are the: (i) number of Non-participant Bodies per tender; (ii) relative item value; (iii) amount of Non-participant Bodies per supplier per tender; (iv) distribution of winners; (v) proportion of approved quantities per item for Non- participant Bodies per tender; and (vi) tender with only Managing Body and Non-participant Bodies. The latent class with a high Non-participant Bodies presence with few suppliers (N=749) was the most salient to be more favorable for the sale of price registration minutes, intended to be carried out in future studies.

• Assessing the potential for detecting fraud in Brazilian public procurement using Latent Class Analysis. Alencar, E. (2021). UC Irvine. Peer reviewed|Ph.D dissertation, ProQuest ID: Alencar_uci_0030D_17410. Merritt ID: ark:/13030/m5z96996. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0b2363z1 [PDF]

Based on 2019 procurement data composed of almost 1.5 million observations, this study employs Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to investigate how latent profiles are defined to represent behavior in the Price Registration minutes based on a set of selected variables. LCA approach brought the possibility of identifying some characteristics that can suggest or direct the efforts of the control bodies in identifying illegal cases. From the seventeen-profile model with binary variables, we identified a latent class (N=2589) that could be the object of a more detailed analysis by the control bodies. From the LCA with binary and continuous variables, the seven-class solution provided the optimal fit for our data, with the lowest BIC value and a high entropy value. The seven relevant factors that increase the risks of renting price registration drafts are the: (i) number of Non-participant Bodies (NPB) per tender; (ii) relative item value; (iii) amount of NPB per supplier per tender; (iv) distribution of winners; (v) proportion of approved quantities per item for NPB per tender; and (vi) tender with only Managing Body (MB) and NPB. The latent class with a high NPB presence with few suppliers (N=749) was the most salient to be more favorable for the sale of price registration minutes, intended to be carried out in future studies. Our results highlight that such an organization-centered approach can provide insights not apparent in the more common variable-centered practice. Although our goal was to unpack further insights within Price Registration System, future work may wish to include more of the measures from the models in the clustering routine.

• Applying Synthetic Control Method to estimate the impact of the Lava Jato operation on the Worldwide Governance Indicators in Brazil, Journal of White-Collar and Corporate Crime, Alencar, E. C. N., & Jackson-Green, B. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1177/2631309X211017874  [PDF]

In 2014, the most prominent anti-corruption investigation in Latin America called Lava Jato, exposed a Brazilian corruption scheme with reverberations in 61 countries, resulting in legal judgments for nearly 5 billion USD in reimbursements thus far. This article applies the synthetic control method to data from 135 countries (2002–2018) to test the hypothesis that Lava Jato impacts the Worldwide Governance Indicators in Brazil. The findings reveal that Lava Jato negatively affects control of corruption, the rule of law, and regulatory quality. There are signs of possible improvement in at least the corruption and the rule of law measures. This paper brings value to the criminological body of literature, notably lacking in the Global South.

Policy Brief

• The Impact of the Lava Jato on Corruption and Trust: Evidence from Brazil [PDF]

This brief summarises the lessons learned from the Lava Jato analysis on Corruption and Trust in Brazil and selected countries. The findings point out that Lava Jato did not significantly impact citizens' experience with corruption and their trust in the local government. However, corruption perception has a significant negative impact on local government trust in Brazil and countries not involved in this anti-corruption operation. The findings suggest that respondents with leftist political ideology tend to have less trust in local government. The data also suggest that men who are interested in living outside the country and who have some organizational involvement (attend religious organization meetings, parent association community, improvement groups, movements, or political parties) are more exposed to corruption.