O Tribunal de Contas Operacional: Contexto, conceito e conteúdo

Abstract

This dissertation studies the Brazilian court of accounts’ (“TCU”) transition into a general “operational controller” of public administration, in an innovation in regards to its traditional role as a conformity checker of federal public spending. Firstly, we show how the TCU pursued the inclusion of this modality of control under its umbrella of functions during the constituent and legislative processes. After that, we detail how the specialized literature defines what could be seen as an “operational control”, and how and in which context this type of fiscalization entered the function array of Supreme Audit Institutions around the world. Lastly, we study how the TCU built its internal concept of an “operational control”, and if it could be seen as a national implementation of the concept in the Brazilian context, or if it is something else entirely.