Ética Orçamentária: balizamentos para uma Governança Responsável

Abstract

The history of the right to the budget gets mixed with that of the modern constitutionalism. The principle of the consented tax and of the authorized expenses expresses an important conquest of the popular sovereignty; at its core is the spirit of budget ethics. The development of the concept of ethics has advanced to how the administrator should manage public money. Formal democracy is not enough; for a real democracy, it is necessary that the public administrator observe a mode of governance based on values informed by the budget ethic, it means, properly planned, with transparency, attentive to the prudence and the fiscal balance, correcting any measures that contradict them. In order to give effect to such values, the LRF emerged: considered an instrument by virtue of a responsible management mode. However, recent experiences show that it is necessary to perfect it, as it must also be interpreted in the light of the same ethics that inspired it. The limit set for public indebtedness is not a goal to be achieved, but to be avoided; The fiscal balance, in turn, must be observed in its intertemporal aspect, so that significant increases in the stock of public debt or the amount of fiscal benefits deserve greater legal rigidity, both by the establishment of new normative devices, and by means of a interpretation oriented to the effectiveness of budget ethics. This paper aims to provoke debate on the subject, bringing a series of objective financial data, mainly related to the recent governance of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the result of which is emblematic for the theme in question.