Portais de transparência pública versus compreensibilidade da informação: um estudo com o balanço orçamentário

Abstract

In order for the exercise of social control to be carried out by the population, in addition to publicity in accountability, the information disclosed by the public sector must be comprehensible and useful for decision making. However, the comprehensibility of public sector accounting information has proved to be a critical factor in a context of government transparency, hindering the decision-making process by the information user. In this sense, this research aims to verify whether the mandatory disclosure of public entities through the transparency portals diminishes the informational asymmetry between the citizen and the public sector. The research was conducted based on a questionnaire adapted from previous studies and applied to the students of Business Administration and Accounting from the Federal Technological University of Paraná campus Pato Branco. In addition to the characterization of the respondents, the questionnaire analyzed the knowledge in accounting, the perception of academics regarding the portals of transparency and ccounting statements applied to the public sector and the comprehensibility of the information presented in the budget balance. Methodologically the research is characterized as the objectives as descriptive, as the procedures as field survey (Survey) and as the approach as quantitative. 135 valid answers were obtained between both undergraduate courses and data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics techniques. The results show that more than 55% of the students consider to have some accounting knowledge and that 44% of the respondents have already accessed the transparency portals, especially to verify the remuneration of public servants. More than 70% of respondents consider financial statements applied to the public sector important, however, 52% of Management students and 27% of Accounting students have never used public sector financial statements and students who have done so have used the financial statements. accounting statements for academic purposes. It was also possible to identify that academics do not understand the budget execution information presented in the budget balance and that, independent of accounting knowledge, the language used in the budget balance is considered difficult to understand. About 80% of academics consider it necessary to use additions such as explanatory notes, glossaries and graphics to bring greater transparency to public accounts. Thus, the research shows that even citizens with higher educational level have difficulty understanding the information disclosed by the public sector and that mandatory disclosure by government entities is not being sufficient to reduce the informational asymmetry between the citizen and the state.