| dc.description.abstract | In the scope of public administration, transparency is a fundamental precept, through the
information that is disclosed, society has the opportunity to exercise control over the State,
participating and monitoring the actions undertaken by elected or not elected officials. In this
sense, governance acts as a primary ally to transparency, guiding how to act correctly and
serving as a means of preventing corruption. In search of guarantees of the smooth running of
transparency with the help of governance, some mechanisms were created, such as the Fiscal
Responsibility Law and the Access to Information Law, the latter acting as a way of putting
into operation the principle of publicity so linked to public transparency, in order to make
secrecy an exception. The State of Rio Grande do Sul, composed of 497 municipalities, seeking
regional development, uses development councils as a way of giving voice to each region
according to its needs, dividing the territory into 28 Regional Development Councils (Coredes)
and these into 9 Functional Planning Regions. With a view to the importance of public
transparency for social control and councils for municipalities, this study aimed to understand
the main practices, developed by Coredes, that enable public transparency. In order to achieve
this objective, a documental analysis of the Coredes sites was carried out, determining the level
of transparency of each unit, followed by interviews with representatives of the councils. A
correlation study was also carried out with the Socioeconomic Development Index - Idese of
each region, for which tools such as content analysis and Microsoft Excel and SPSS software
were used. With the results obtained, it was possible to perceive that although there is no legal
obligation, Coredes show a certain willingness to disclose their actions because they perceive
the growing interest of the population, so the councils also seek to apply some principles of
public governance in their daily lives. In the Coredes Management Transparency Index - ITGC,
the council that stood out was the Médio Alto Uruguai followed by Vale do Rio Pardo and Vale
do Taquari tied for 2nd place and Vale do Rio dos Sinos in 3rd. When it came to the averages
by Functional Development Region - RF, the best placed was RF2, which in comparison with
its respective Idese obtained only the 4th best index, thus being able to infer that although the
correlation has been shown to be direct, the ITGC is different from the Idese index, which may
be affected by other local agents. In the semi-structured interviews, the respondents recognized
the lack of transparency on their websites and/or pages and that the most expressive
participation of the population takes place in the Popular Consultation, they still attributed a
greater drop in participation to the Covid-19 pandemic. Regarding difficulties in managing the
Coredes, the interviewees reported delays in the transfer of maintenance funds, difficulty in
succession and use of Coredes as “political platforms”, in addition to a lack of interest from the
young public. | |
