O Tribunal de Contas no combate à corrupção: accountability pública e as perspectivas políticas

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the accountability democratically exercised by the Government Accountability Offices and the influence that the performance of this constitutional function has on the political life of cities. Accountability is the exercise of inspection and accountability by the Public Power. It is an instrument of control that is imposed on every public agent who, as a result of the formation of the Democratic State of Rights, must account for the power entrusted by citizens. Accountability can occur in a vertical way, when citizens evaluate the conduct of public affairs and go to the polls to expose their democratic decision to trust, revoke or extend the political mandate of a certain public agent. In turn, accountability can occur horizontally, when Superior Control Institutions are created to oversee the conduct of public management. Among these Supreme Audit Institutions we have the Government Accountability Offices, responsible for external control of administrative activity, a major object of research in this work, especially from the perspective of the performance of these institutions in the fight against corruption. The National System of Government Accountability Offices, as structured in the Federal Constitution, uses a vast set of norms for the exercise of its constitutional attributions, not least because the thematic areas that are subject to its control are varied. That said, in this research the analysis of general and abstract norms that aim to give more secure contours to the performance of the external controllership, such as the legal principles, budgetary rules and the Law of Introduction to the Rules of Brazilian Law, takes precedence. In its range of attributions, without a doubt, the one that most calls attention is the ability to enforce its control and punishment measures for acts of corruption through the application of sanctions to public agents. It so happens that the application of certain sanctions goes beyond the strictly technical universe of Public Administration and comes up against the political-social dynamics of cities. This work makes a cut to address some of these occurrences that the exercise of horizontal accountability produces in cities, such as the need for administrative reorganization in times of crisis, the control of public policies, the fight against corruption and electoral ineligibility. In this way, as an institution to fight corruption in the Administration, the Government Accountability Offices inevitably end up politically influencing the conduct and management of public affairs.