Disclosure in public service: an analysis of the applicability of the transparency law in Minas Gerais municipalities

Abstract

In this descriptive study, developed through analysis of documents, it was possible to verify by means of access and consultation of electronic portals, whether the acts of the Public Administration in thirty (30) municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais with population of over one hundred thousand (100,000), relating to their financial and budgetary execution, comply with the provisions of the Complementary Law nº 131/2009, called the Transparency Law. It was also checked the information disclosure of these municipalities. In all the thirty (30) municipalities investigated in Minas Gerais it was found the implementation of the Transparency Law. The totality of municipalities have web addresses, however this deployment does not show the disclosure and do not meet fully the mandatory legal requirements and recommended for the disclosure of budget execution. In some websites, the information is difficult to find, being necessary to open multiple links to access the desired information. It was also confirmed, in the portals consultation period, that some municipalities with significant population density as Uberlândia, Contagem, Juiz de Fora and Montes Claros are in the top list of municipalities that attended fewer legally defined criteria. Ribeirão das Neves is the municipality that most meets the legal requirements of transparency followed by the cities of Ipatinga and Teófilo Otoni. It was noted also that some electronic sites have constant maintenance periods, remaining unavailable or disabled for long periods harming citizens' access to information and making it difficult to track the information available in real time by public officials.