Parliamentary Committees of Inquiry (PCIs) at Federal Senate: an empirical analysis of results (2003-2010)

• Grant number: 13/16616-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2013
• End date: August 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Public Law
• Principal Investigator: José Duarte Neto
• Grantee: Guilherme Pinho Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Parliamentary Committees of Inquiry (PCIs) are a very important tool for the Legislative Power to control the acts of the Executive Power, also it has an important meaning, even on the legislating duty. To create a PCI is necessary only the object to be determined, considering it is a matter of public reverberation and; the application to create it need to be signed by 1/3 of the parliamentary of the Legislative House or, in a the situation of a Mix Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry is necessary the signature of 1/3 of the parliamentary of both Houses. Because it is not open to vote on the plenary the PCI is also an important tool for the parliamentary minorities. On a research it was found that there is a very low rate of conclusion of PCIs, at the Federal Senate, from the time of the publication of the 1988 Constitution to the 51ª Legislature comparing with the 52ª and 53ª Legislatures. On that same time there was no considerable changes of PCIs conclusion rates at the National Congress and at the Deputy House. This research intends to analyze the reasons that led the Parliamentary Committees of Inquiry to not have a conclusion on the period from 2003 to 2010. Based on this data, this work has an empiric approach, and the goal to find out why each PCI case was dropped unconcluded on the period of the 52ª and 53ª Legislatures.