Contribuição das auditorias operacionais para a accountability de resultados na administração pública

Abstract

In modern democracies, legitimacy of the public representatives is not solely based on electoral processes any more. A dynamic approach to legitimacy that encourages the creation of permanent mechanisms of participation and control in order to ensure that the public machine works to the best interests of the citizens is mandatory. Perfecting the public control depends, essentially, on the reduction of information asymmetries between citizens and the public leaders. In this sense, components of Public Governance such as transparency and accountability are relevant, nestled in the context of a New Public Management system which requires better results based on economy, efficiency, efficacy and effectiveness. These transformations have direct impact on the practices of the national institutions in charge of the external control of the public management. The constitutional duty of the Courts of Auditors to provide information to citizens about the results achieved by governments grants significant importance to performance audits, which represent an essential element to promoting results accountability. The objective of this work is to assess the level of contribution of the performance audits to the results accountability in public management, considering aspects related to the auditing entity, the entity being audited and to society, as well as the execution phases of the audit. As methodology strategy, a survey about this subject was conducted in order to identify the perception of external control auditors of the Court of Auditors of the City of Rio de Janeiro. In spite of the structural advancements presented by the Court of Auditors that support the improvements of the performance control, the conclusion we have obtained is that administrative difficulties and systemic limitations inherent to the audited organizations and, mainly, factors related to society interest, understanding and participation still represent significant obstacles that prevent performance audits from reaching adequate level of contribution to providing information and to promoting results accountability.