Observatórios sociais e qualificação dos gastos públicos municipais

Abstract

Public spending is routinely addressed by social media, usually under a negative bias, and, linked to this, as a possible solution, are the control mechanisms that aim at a better use of these resources. The Social Observatories emerge as an important control mechanism, aiming to promote transparency and better use of public resources, capable of promoting monitoring activities of public spending that involve the population without any distinction, as long as it has no political ties. It is in this scenario that the theme of this research is inserted, referring to the importance of the implementation of Social Observatories in Rio Grande do Sul for the qualification of Municipal Public Spending. The main objective is to evaluate the contribution of the Social Observatories in Rio Grande do Sul in the qualification and control of municipal public spending. For this purpose, a descriptive research was used as methodology, through the consultation of the Transparency and Economy reports made available in the OSB website, using the information referring to the last five years, from 2017 to 2021, of all the fourteen municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul, where the Social Observatories are present. In this process, a series of activities that contribute to both the control and the qualification of public spending were verified; however, with regard to the amounts saved from the actions of the Social Observatories, the amount is still insignificant. Finally, it was concluded that the Social Observatories develop activities that contribute to social control, but that there is still a long journey of improvement to make their results really meaningful to society and reduce more effectively public spending.