Governança pública: a ação do Tribunal de Contas da União e a percepção dos burocratas em um conselho de fiscalização profissional

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how public governance developed in the Conselho Regional de Enfermagem da Bahia (Coren-BA), from the action of the TCU's external control, and the understanding of its bureaucrats about this action from 2012 to 2020. The theory of bureaucracy, neo-institutional theory and public governance were used as theoretical support for the research. The single case study was used as an approach with data collection being generated from three sources: documents, interviews and forms, being the analysis guided by triangulation of the collected data and the use of the Content Analysis method. The analysis was broken down into four dimensions, named: Management and Public Governance; Accountability; External Control and Hierarchy. Some central research assumptions were assumed, as follows: a) the TCU's action resulted in the incorporation of governance instruments by Coren-BA; b) public overnance was implemented through the adoption of a system of norms and controls without considering the subjective factors that affect the conduct of bureaucrats; and c) there were internal disagreements about the positivity of the TCU's external control action in the organization from the point of view of middle-level bureaucrats and street-level bureaucrats. The results revealed that the action of inducing TCU governance in the researched organization led to the incorporation of management instruments and the improvement of activities related to its governance and public management. Another verified result was that the governance system was actually implemented without taking into consideration the subjective aspects that affect the behavior of bureaucrats, as it was evidenced that their involvement and interaction process with the governance system shows precariousness due to the non-consolidation of employee involvement in governance processes and decision-making, in addition to the precariousness of communication flows. As last result, it was verified the absence of divergence of thought between the middle-level and street-level bureaucrats regarding the action of external control, with both groups recognizing the relevance of the supervisory action of the external control entity and its contribution to improvement of governance and public management of Coren-BA, and thus holding a positive view on this action. Thus, it is concluded that public governance demands a comprehensive coordination system in which external control plays a fundamental role in its development, requiring the involvement of public bureaucrats to ensure the best performance of the public governance system in the organization.