Institutional independence and horizontal accountability: the (im)partial performance of public audit institutions in Brazil

• Grant number: 17/00702-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2017
• End date: March 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - State and Government
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Rogério Bastos Arantes
• Grantee: Thiago do Nascimento Fonseca
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In order to advance the debate about how Brazilian institutional accountability works, the present project intends to test two hypotheses frequently advocated in the literature, according to which institutional cooperation and partisan politics influence the success of control actions. More specifically, it will analyze actions of three institutions that exercise control prerogatives over the federal public treasury, namely, Parliamentary Inquiry Committees (CPIs), Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and Attorney General's Office (AGU). Computational programming techniques will be used for database extraction and organization based on TCU and AGU procedural data and conclusive reports from CPIs. In addition to descriptive data analysis, the research intends to apply the Heckman model to avoid the selection bias problem and to estimate the impact of variables linked to institutional cooperation and party politics on the probability of accountability actions to be effective. It is hoped to estimate not only the impact of these variables on the probability of success of accountability actions, but also to identify in which stages of procedural process between institutions the same variables exert more influence.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FONSECA, Thiago do Nascimento. Costs and interests: the political bias of independent anti-corruption institutions. 2021. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.