ADMINISTRATION

Administrative Expenses

These are expenses necessary for the PREVI operation. They are related to costs with personnel, infrastructure, suppliers and communication, among others, and do not include specific costs referring to investments, such as brokers and auditors. In 2006, the administrative expenses amounted to R$ 133.2 million (R$ 125.3 million in 2005). Under the legislation, the limit for administrative expenses is 15% on the normal social security revenues. PREVI registered 15%, already including the impact of the 40% reduction on the normal social security contributions.


The Cost of the Investments

There are costs involved in resource administration, such as: portfolio management, custody, brokerage, consulting services, lawyers' fees, audits and other relevant expenses. These values are published in the Statement of Investments (see page xx).


New Bylaws Re-establish Direct Elections and Increase Participation

The change in the Bylaws enhanced the democracy with the direct choice of the Administration, Social Security and Planning Officers. Another innovation was the creation of two Advisory Boards, one for Plan 1 and the other for PREVI Futuro. Each of these boards counts on three elected members (and their respective alternates) and the same number of representatives indicated by the Bank. They are supposed to follow the situation of the respective plan, ask for additional studies or explanations about relevant aspects, present proposals and suggestions concerning management, among other competences. The elections accomplished in May consolidated these changes. In June, the persons in charge of PREVI management in the next years took office.


Planning: Seminar Evaluates Results

PREVI administrators and managers participated in a Strategic Planning Seminar in order to evaluate the results achieved in the past few years and make plans for the development of PREVI. Opinion polls accomplished with the participants, internal atmosphere research and the Managerial Development Program were the basis of the work. Other sources for the deliberations were the self-evaluations accomplished by the areas, which tried to identify positive points and points to be developed. The Seminar counted on the participation of the Brazilian national volleyball team coach, Bernardinho. Among several lessons, he highlighted that yesterday's victory does not guarantee anything today. He also stressed that more important than talent is the search for qualification.


Training: Service Improvement was the Focus

All together, the various training courses developed amounted to 42,087 hours, with an average of 76.66 training hours per employee. The highlights were the training courses to improve the service provided to the associates, and those related to the investment areas.


In order to better attend to the needs of the associates, the telemarketing operators were qualified, so as to develop skills in the multifunctional performance of the position. A quality and productivity program was also developed to qualify the attendants in the use of excellence practices within the structure of the service center.


In the investment are, courses were accomplished to develop and improve the professional competences necessary for the assessment of variable income assets (evaluation of companies).


Other courses and congresses covered themes such as: Finances, Complementary Social Security, Actuaries, Investments, Information Technology, Accounting and Control, Personnel Management and Organization.


Technology: More Resources and Security

In the Information Technology area, there was an increment in the services rendered by the PREVI website. The entire infrastructure of support to the operations via Internet was renewed and enlarged, for operation in an uninterrupted regime. New resources enabled the provision of the simple loan via Internet and the re-opening of the real estate financing.


A claim of the active employees was attended: the PREVI website is now available for any computer on the Banco do Brasil intranet, without the need to access it via Internet.


In order to guarantee security for the associate to access the information and services, which is indispensable in the digital society, the Information Security area had its technological infrastructure renewed.


Transparent Occupation of Positions

Within the Personnel Policy, the highlight was the accomplishment of various internal and external selections of professionals for the PREVI offices. The external selections are published in the SisBB and at the PREVI website. Selections were carried out for the positions of executive manager, team manager and analysts. By means of a partnership with the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), it was possible to implement on-line tests.


Internal Control has Committee and Regulation

The legislation requires more and more control in the activities of the pension funds. PREVI, which, in 2004, has already created the Internal Controls and Conformity Management (Conin), created the Internal Controls Committee and elaborated a Regulation to rule its activities. Among the functions of the Committee is the task of disseminating the culture of internal controls within PREVI and it is coordinated by the Conin.