Prestação de contas como estratégia para a legitimidade e gestão de organizações públicas

Abstract

Accountability in public administration is an important mechanism for sector transparency when reporting the use of resources, investments and subsidies to higher bodies, regulatory agencies and society in general. Your practice of transparency, mandatory or voluntary, can strategically influence your trustworthiness by your stakeholders. This work aims to identify aspects related to mandatory and voluntary accountability of public administration and how its practice can influence the organization's legitimacy. The methodology includes a systematic literature review and content analysis to identify and describe the aspects that influence the practice of mandatory and voluntary accountability in public administration for the construction of a conceptual model, as well as it is expected to identify a set of indicators of performance related to that context. Based on this model, a case study protocol is structured to analyze these aspects in the practice of a public organization to then describe how mandatory and voluntary accountability can be strategically beneficial, as well as suggesting a performance measurement instrument that can contribute with the legitimacy of the organization. This study differs in that it presents the motivations for accountability, whether mandatory or voluntary, and discusses its importance for the perception and, consequent legitimacy, of society in general in the context in which transparency, responsibility and professionalism in public management is required. While some bodies leave their public management models with more autonomy and less bureaucracy, others opt for management processes based on strict protocols in order to minimize errors and failures in decision-making and in the use of public resources. Regardless of the model, public management can and should seek alternatives to professionalize, monitor and continuously improve its management and performance processes and, therefore, the performance measurement instrument presented in this project can contribute to accountability and legitimacy.