Exame da apreciação das contas de governos municipais pelo Tribunal de Contas do estado do Tocantins

Abstract

The research problem in this study was to identify the bottlenecks in the assessment of government accountability in the municipalities of Tocantins by the Tocantins State Court of Auditors. With this in mind, this paper proposed an exploratory study, using bibliographical and documentary methods, with a qualitative approach to the data. Firstly, the transformations of the jus-political paradigms imposed on the public sphere, the demand for greater planning and results-orientated activity were addressed. Next, the institutional framework of the Brazilian Court of Auditors and the horizon of opportunities for its performance were discussed. To this end, in order to propose measures to improve the processing of accounts, the integrated reporting model was pointed out as a matrix for structuring data, as well as a logical model for designing government programmes. With this reference, the theoretical framework was proposed through which the empirical information of the research was analysed. The object of this study was the assessment of government accounts carried out by the Tocantins State Court of Auditors of the largest and five smallest municipalities in Tocantins between 2014 and 2019, and data was collected on the timing, content and main irregularities identified in the analysis carried out by this external control body. The result was non-compliance with the deadlines for assessing the accounts, the lack of a methodology for analysing public policies from the perspective of economy, efficiency, effectiveness and impact, as well as the lack of follow-up on the implementation of the recommendations issued by the TCE/TO.