RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday, February 22nd, that he has decided to “implode” the National Weights and Measures Institute (INMETRO) and announced the dismissal of the body’s entire board of directors.
The INMETRO is the federal body in charge of implementing national weights and measures policies, monitoring compliance with technical standards, methods and measuring instruments and units of measurement.
Bolsonaro gave the statement outside a supermarket in Guarujá (SP), where he traveled on Friday, February 21st, while he was spending the Carnaval holiday at Forte dos Andradas, an army base. The speech was broadcast live through the President’s social media profile. In the morning, Bolsonaro visited stores in the city, on the São Paulo coast. In addition to visiting two supermarkets, he was at a bakery, where he had coffee.
“I have imploded the INMETRO. I sent everyone away. Why? A few months ago they signed an ordinance to switch taximeters. Instead of the normal one, they invented a digital one. It’s checked every two years. They switched it to one year. I told them to stop it,” he said.
The taximeter is an instrument that displays and records data on vehicle driving, such as distance travelled, speed developed and stopping and driving times.
According to Bolsonaro, the INMETRO ordinance would hurt taxi drivers. “It started in Rio, I don’t know if it came to São Paulo, to switch the taximeters. But why? Four hundred (Reais) each. The taximeters cost R$1,900. Multiply that by millions of vehicles that operate with taximeters. There are 40,000 taxis in Rio alone.
One of the changes the president refers to is an August 2019 ordinance that provides a new rule for standardizing speed sensors used in taximeters.
“We don’t have to get in the way of other people’s lives. We should be making life easier for those who produce. The new taximeters, do it differently. The new gadgets, okay. Now, take them from people, change them, no. So, what do I have to do? Implode them.”
So, he said, he decided to “chop everybody’s head off.” According to Bolsonaro, “the president and a half dozen members of the board of directors” were dismissed.
“I’m not accusing anyone of doing anything wrong. They were fired mostly for their excessive zeal. It got hard for me to put up with this initiative from them,” he declared.
Last Monday, February 17th, the Federal Gazette had already published the dismissal of the INMETRO President Angela Flores Furtado, replaced by Army Colonel Marcos Heleno Guerson de Oliveira Júnior.
Angela Flores had been appointed to the position by Carlos da Costa, Secretary of Productivity, Employment and Competitiveness of the Ministry of Economy, to which the body is subordinated.
In a note, INMETRO reported that “recent ordinances are being reviewed by the president, as well as the board structure for the new management”.
The G1 also sought the advice of the Special Secretariat of Productivity and, until the last update of this post, was awaiting a statement on the dismissals.
INMETRO has six directorates: the Administration and Finance Department; the Compliance Evaluation Department; Directorate of Metrology Applied to Life Sciences; the Scientific and Technology Metrology Department; the Legal Metrology Department and the Institutional Planning and Articulation Department.