Informational practices in external oversight
audit planning in Brazilian Courts of Accounts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21874/kpg3qf75Keywords:
information use, external oversight, Courts of Accounts, government auditing, institutional capacitiesAbstract
Information use is central to external oversight, yet there are gaps in how different sources are mobilized in audit planning. This article analyzes how auditors in Brazilian Courts of Accounts use information, considering audit type and institutional capacities. Based on a survey of 226 auditors from 33 Courts of Accounts, we identify an informational core composed of legal and regulatory norms, internal administrative data, prior audit reports, information provided by audited entities, and the team’s accumulated experience. Audit type differentiates informational diversity: performance audits mobilize more diverse repertoires than financial and compliance audits. Institutional capacities shape these variations. Technical units are associated with the systematization of the core, while specialized planning and intelligence structures expand the articulation across sources and, in some contexts, incorporate external sources. By treating planning as an institutionalized informational practice, the study highlights the role of organizational arrangements in a still underexplored stage of Brazilian external oversight.
Downloads
References
CAIRNEY, Paul. The politics of evidence-based policy making. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2016. Disponível em: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-51781-4 . Acesso em 14 jan. 2026.
BABBIE, Earl. Métodos de pesquisas de survey. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG, 1999.
DIMAGGIO, Paul J.; POWELL, Walter W. The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, v. 48, n. 2, p. 147–160, 1983. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101. Acesso em 21 jan. 2026.
FIELD, Andy. Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics. 4. ed. London: SAGE, 2013.
FISHER, Ronald A. On the interpretation of χ² from contingency tables, and the calculation of P. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, v. 85, n. 1, p. 87–94, 1922. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.2307/2340521.
FOWLER JR., Floyd J. Survey Research Methods. 4. ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2009.
GROVES, Robert M.; FOWLER JR., Floyd J.; COUPER, Mick P.; LEPKOWSKI, James M.; SINGER, Eleanor; TOURANGEAU, Roger. Survey methodology. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
HEAD, Brian W. Toward more “evidence-informed” policy making? Public Administration Review, v. 76, n. 3, p. 472–484, 2016. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12475.
HOLM, Sture. A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure. Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, v. 6, n. 2, p. 65–70, 1979.
HOWLETT, Michael. Designing public policies: principles and instruments. Policy and Society, 34(3–4), 173–182, 2015. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polsoc.2015.09.002. Acesso em 09 jan. 2026.
INTOSAI. International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. ISSAI 100 – Princípios Fundamentais da Auditoria do Setor Público. Viena, 2013.
INTOSAI. ISSAI 200 – Princípios Fundamentais da Auditoria Financeira. Viena: International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, 2016.
INTOSAI. International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. ISSAI 300 – Normas de Auditoria Operacional. Viena, 2016.
KOGA, Natália Massaco; PALOTTI, Pedro Lucas de Moura; LINS, Rafael da Silva; COUTO, Bruno Gontyjo do; LOUREIRO, Miguel; LIMA, Shana Nogueira. Como os burocratas federais se informam? Uma radiografia das fontes de evidências utilizadas no trabalho das políticas públicas. In: KOGA, Natália Massaco; PALOTTI, Pedro Lucas de Moura; MELLO, Janine; PINHEIRO, Maurício Mota Saboya (org.). Políticas públicas e usos de evidências no Brasil: conceitos, métodos, contextos e práticas. Brasília: Ipea, 2022. cap. 9, p. 313-342. Disponível em: http://dx.doi.org/10.38116/ 978-65-5635-032-5/capitulo9. Acesso em: 29 mar. 2025.
KOGA, Natália Massaco; GOELLNER, Isabella de Araujo; MEDEIROS, Bernardo de Abreu. A Influência dos entes do controle no processo de absorção de conhecimento para políticas Públicas. Boletim de Análise Político-Institucional: governança e cultura do uso de evidências no Brasil : experiências, desafios e temas emergentes. Rio de Janeiro: Ipea; Brasília, DF: Cepal, n. 37, p. 83-91, mar. 2024. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.38116/bapi37art7. Acesso em: 29 mar. 2025.
LIKERT, Rensis. A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, v. 22, n. 140, p. 1–55, 1932.
LONSDALE, Jeremy; WILKINS, Peter; LING, Tom. Performance auditing: contributing to accountability in democratic government. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2011.
MANN, Henry B.; WHITNEY, Donald R. On a test of whether one of two random variables is stochastically larger than the other. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, v. 18, n. 1, p. 50–60, 1947.
NUTLEY, Sandra M.; DAVIES, Huw T. O.; SMITH, Peter C. What works? Evidence-based policy and practice in public services. Bristol: Policy Press, 2000. Disponível em: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Huw-Davies-3/publication/245842989_Debates_on_the_role_of_experimentation/links/56013a2a08ae07629e52bd4b/Debates-on-the-role-of-experimentation.pdf. Acesso em 09 jan. 2026.
NUTLEY, Sandra M.; WALTER, Isabel; DAVIES, Huw T. O. Using evidence: how research can inform public services. Bristol: Policy Press, 2007. Disponível em DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781861346650.001.0001. Acesso em 14 jan. 2026.
PAINTER, Martin; PIERRE, Jon. Challenges to state policy capacity: global trends and comparative perspectives. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
PALOTTI, Pedro Lucas de Moura; KOGA, Natália Massaco; LINS, Rafael da Silva; COUTO, Bruno Gontyjo do; SOARES FILHO, Marcos Luiz Vieira. A CIÊNCIA ENTRE INDIVÍDUOS E ORGANIZAÇÕES: como capacidades analíticas individuais e organizacionais se combinam para a utilização de evidências científicas nas políticas públicas? Caderno CRH, v. 36, p. e023021, 2023. Disponível em https://doi.org/10.9771/ccrh.v36i0.53388. Acesso em 03. Fev. 2026.
PEARSON, Karl. On the criterion that a given system of deviations from the probable in the case of a correlated system of variables is such that it can be reasonably supposed to have arisen from random sampling. Philosophical Magazine, v. 50, n. 302, p. 157–175, 1900.
POLLITT, Christopher; BATHGATE, Andrew; CAULFIELD, Julie; SMULLEN, Anna; TALBOT, Colin. Performance or compliance? Performance audit and public management in five countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Disponível em: https://academic.oup.com/book/27277/chapter-abstract/196913806?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false. Acesso em 19 jan. 2026.
POWER, Michael. (1997). The audit society: Rituals of verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Disponível em: https://academic.oup.com/book/26482?login=false. Acesso em 19 jan. 2026.
SAGUIN, Kidjie; GUEDES-NETO, João V.; PALOTTI, Pedro Lucas Moura; KOGA, Natália Massaco; CARNEIRO, Flavio Lyrio, Variation in evidence use across policy sectors: the case of Brazil, Policy and Society, p. puae031, 2024. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puae031. Acesso em: 03 fev. 2026.
SIEGEL, Sidney; CASTELLAN JR., N. John. Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. 2. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.
WEISS, Carol H. The many meanings of research utilization. Public Administration Review, v. 39, n. 5, p. 426–431, 1979. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.2307/3109916. Acesso em: 10 set. 2025.
WU, Xun; RAMESH, M.; HOWLETT, M. Policy capacity: a conceptual framework for understanding policy competences and capabilities. Policy and Society, v. 34, n. 3–4, p. 165–171, 2015. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polsoc.2015.09.001. Acesso em 15 jan. 2026.
.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Revista do Serviço Público
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
- A RSP adota a licença Creative Commons (CC) do tipo Atribuição – Uso Não-Comercial (BY-NC).
- A licença permite que outros remixem, adaptem e criem obra licenciada, sendo proibido o uso com fins comerciais.
- As novas obras devem fazer referência ao autor nos créditos e não podem ser usadas com fins comerciais, porém não precisam ser licenciadas sob os mesmos termos dessa licença.
- Ao publicar o artigo na RSP, o autor cede e transfere para a ENAP os direitos autorais patrimoniais referentes ao artigo.
- O artigo publicado na RSP não poderá ser divulgado em outro meio sem a devida referência à publicação de origem.
- O autor que tiver o artigo publicado na RSP deverá assinar o Termo de Concessão de Direitos Autorais (em momento oportuno a editoria da Revista entrará em contato com o autor para assinatura do Termo).
