Enforcement by Courts of Auditors Post-LAI:

The Role of Translation and Closeness to Citizens

Abstract

This theoretical-empirical study investigates what has been the role of the Courts of Accounts (TCEs) facing the changes imposed by the Law on Access to Information (LAI) in Brazil, given the scenario of a gradual reduction of the distance between governor and governed. Conciliating Sociolegal approach and Organizational Institutionalism, the research employed interpretative discourse analysis in primary and secondary data of 13 TCEs. It contends that the TCEs have rethought their acting posture, in addition to their constitutional spectrum, because: (a) through a discourse of approximation with social control, they seek to establish partnership with society; (b) aiming at instrumentalizing the citizen for the exercise of social control, they act in the compilation and processing of public data, translating them into the social landscape; and (c) because of the accountability and penalty difficulties outlined by LAI, the regulatory apparatus has adopted alternative – including pedagogical – ways to support enforcement and compliance.