11 Assemblies have bad or terrible transparency – 05/24/2023 – Power

11 Assemblies have bad or terrible transparency – 05/24/2023 – Power


The Legislative Assemblies of 11 states have a level of transparency considered bad or terrible, according to a study carried out by the NGO Transparência Internacional – Brasil.

The Transparency and Public Governance Index analyzes the publicity of information on official travel, lobby regulation norms, the presence of deputies in plenary sessions and salaries paid to civil servants and deputies, in addition to the use of funds from parliamentary quotas.

The study points out that no Legislative Assembly obtained the “excellent” classification and only 4 Legislative Houses had a “good” performance: the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District was the one with the highest level of transparency, followed by the Assemblies of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais and Ceará.

Another 12 states had performance considered “regular”, including São Paulo, Bahia, Pernambuco and Santa Catarina. The Assemblies of eight states had a “poor” performance. In another three the level of transparency of the Legislature was considered “terrible”: Piauí, Amapá and Acre.

It is the first time that Transparency International assesses the level of transparency of state legislatures. 62 indicators were analyzed that measured mechanisms and practices of transparency, prevention and fight against corruption and incentive to popular participation.

The index evaluates eight dimensions: legislation, platforms, legislative transparency, administrative transparency, participation and engagement, digital transformation, governance and communication.

The survey pointed out that the biggest challenges to ensure transparency and social participation are in the dimension of legislation.

Ten states, including Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul, zeroed the score in this category, which monitors the existence and regulation of laws and regulations covering topics such as lobbying, protection of whistleblowers, open data and protection of personal data.

None of the 27 Legislative Houses has norms to regulate lobbying activities, such as rules for disclosing meetings or interactions between public agents and interest groups.

The study also evaluated mechanisms for citizen participation in Legislative Assemblies and found that they still do not allow the population to make complaints on their website. No Assembly provides for measures to protect whistleblowers of corruption.

Another negative point is the lack of transparency about the salaries of public servants in the Legislative Assemblies. Only four states –Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul— publish complete databases, on a monthly basis, on the salary of effective and commissioned public servants.

The disclosure of this data is seen as a way of inhibiting “cracking” schemes, an illegal practice of recovering part of the salaries of office workers for the deputy’s personal or political use.

“In addition to harming parliamentary performance, because employees are often ghosts or placed in a situation of coercion, this type of practice undermines the legitimacy of parliaments and weakens democracy. More transparency is essential to prevent and detect early ‘cracks’ in the future “, says Guilherme France, research manager at Transparency International Brazil.

Among the positive aspects identified by the survey is the progress in regulating the Access to Information Law, the existence of transparency portals, the dissemination of information about the commissions, the online transmission of plenary sessions and the dissemination of contacts of deputies.

In the opinion of Renato Morgado, program manager at Transparency International in Brazil, the study shows that there is no correlation between the size or economic development of the states and the results of transparency and good governance.

“Small states achieved better results than large and richer states. This demonstrates that, more than financial resources, political will is needed to implement measures that will bring citizens closer to their deputies”, he says.

The Transparency and Public Governance Index was published for the first time in July 2022, assessing the transparency levels of state and district Executives across the country.

Also in 2022, the first round of the study of around 200 Brazilian city halls, evaluated by partner organizations of Transparency International, was published.


TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC GOVERNANCE INDEX

Concept – Good

  • 1st Federal District
  • 2nd Holy Spirit
  • 3rd Minas Gerais
  • 4th Ceará

Concept – Regular

  • 5th Goiás
  • 6th Mato Grosso
  • 7th Rio Grande do Sul
  • 8th Paraná
  • 9th São Paulo
  • 10th Bahia
  • 11th Pernambuco
  • 12th Rondônia
  • 13th Santa Catarina
  • 14th Maranhão
  • 15th Para
  • 16th Roraima

Concept – Bad

  • 17th Rio Grande do Norte
  • 18th Mato Grosso do Sul
  • 19th Paraíba
  • 20th Alagoas
  • 21st Sergipe
  • 22nd Amazon
  • 23rd Tocantins
  • 24th Rio de Janeiro

Concept – Terrible

  • 25th Piauí
  • 26th Amapá
  • 27th acre

Source: Transparency International – Brazil



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