The difficult construction of public accountability before the Brazilian courts of accounts

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze whether there is consistent evidence that Brazilian audit courts are using information and communication technologies (CITs) as instruments to improve transparency, accountability and citizen participation of actions related to the control of public finances.
 Methodology: A quantitative research was conducted based on secondary data obtained from the electronic government pages of all 32 (thirty-two) Brazilian state and municipal courts of accounts. Cluster analysis was performed to establish the tc's ranking on 3 (three) perspectives examined in the study (accountability, transparency, and citizen participation).
 Results: The evidence points to different levels in the dimensions accountability (38.4%), transparency (83.71%) and citizen participation (64.89%). The examination of the attribute accountability, paradoxically, proved to be worrisome due to the destonating behavior of the courts of accounts – including among brazilian regions – given the requirement that they make this attribute with their jurisdictions, but when analyzed, do not promote it in the same intensity.
 Contributions of the Study: The results found in this research may support new evaluations in representative samples, incorporate studies on this theme and assist decision makers.