Capacidade sob contrato? A lógica da contratação de consultores na Administração Pública Federal.

This report presents the findings of the 2025–2026 PIBIC research project on the hiring of individual consultants by the Brazilian federal public administration. Guided by Prof. Dr. João Victor Guedes Neto, the study asked how consulting affects the state’s operational capacity, contrasting three readings from the literature: consulting may strengthen capacity, create dependency, or produce effects contingent on institutional conditions. The research combined a survey of 1,414 contracts obtained through Brazil’s Access to Information Law (2020–2026) with 30 semi-structured interviews with consultants, contracting managers and professionals with hybrid careers. The findings show that consulting neither strengthens nor weakens the state automatically. Its effects depend on the consultant’s degree of integration, on the agency’s absorptive capacity, and on mechanisms that turn temporary expertise into lasting knowledge. When integration compensates for permanent staffing gaps, it tends to become substitution rather than complementation.