This paper analyzes a conflict frequently encountered by an evaluation professional working in the Brazilian context and its implications to the evaluation process. The challenge is to follow ethical principles that guide a true evaluation, and yet untangle the interaction of all the actors within a complex political context, where: (a) the recognition and regulation of the evaluation profession leaves much to be desired; (b) a strong professional association of evaluators is yet to be formed, and (c) we have little empirical guidance that can enlighten the actors in the evaluation process. The conflict for the evaluator is in implementing the principles and standards that guide the formal preparation of an evaluation professional, in the face of limited autonomy of decisions regarding the use of results and recommendations. We illustrate this conflict by describing three case examples of evaluations by the Cesgranrio Foundation that focused social, educational and corporate programs.
Ethical values; Evaluation professional; True evaluation