Transparência pública nas Universidades Federais Brasileiras no contexto da pandemia da COVID 19

Abstract

Brazil has experienced the Covid-19 pandemic since the end of February, 2020. Due to this situation, social measures to control the spread of the disease were imposed by the government. The social isolation prescribed led to adjustments in the functioning model of universities, imposing a quick adaptation of the activities that could be performed remotely, as well as of the essentially in-person activities. Normative provisions state that Brazilian federal universities are responsible for the access to their management data. As a result of the pandemic, the transparency of information regarding actions, programs, bids and contracts has become ever more necessary. In addition, information related to contracts motivated by the coronavirus are now required in real time. In this sense, this research aimed to investigate public transparency by checking the information made available on the electronic portals of Brazilian federal universities and the answers to the questions directed to the universities through their citizen information service. For this scope, the concepts of democratic leadership, open government and public transparency were presented, based on the related literature and normative documents. The study used the applied method, with a descriptive purpose and qualitative approach. As for the technical procedures, the research was divided into phases. In the first, a documental survey was carried out on the official electronic portals of federal universities. The second phase included the verification of the answers to the questions addressed to each university. Data were collected by means of an instrument developed by the author, based on the Escala Brasil Transparente 360º (Transparent Brazil 360º Scale) of the Office of the Federal Controller General (CGU). Results revealed that, on average, around 83.21% of the score established for the assessment of public transparency was achieved by the institutions in the study. The most widely reported topics were Employees, Agreements and Transfers, Income and Expenses, Tenders and Contracts, and Classified Information. The topic with the least transparency was Social Participation. The vast majority of the universities surveyed responded to the requests for access to information, with 93.6% of the requests answered. Therefore, it was concluded that Brazilian federal universities have complied with public transparency in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.