Tirando a lei do papel: um estudo da implementação da lei de acesso à informação em entidades da Administração Pública Federal Indireta

Abstract

This work analyses actions undertaken by six Brazilian Indirect Federal Administration Entities (National Cinema Agency - Ancine; National Oil, Gas, and Renewable Energy Agency - ANP; National Metrology, Quality and Technology Institute - Inmetro; National Intellectual Property Institute - INPI; and Oswald Cruz Foundation - Fiocruz) to respond to public queries received through Brazil's Freedom of Information Act. The research posits that government transparency has two linked dimensions: the political-institutional and the administrative-managerial. To understand the first dimension, it deals with the relationship between information and the State and with transparency as an element of an emerging global information policy regime. It also discusses access to information and transparency as conditions for establishing a new relationship between the State and society, reaching the notion of Open Government. At the administrative level, it addresses informational actions as essential activities of modern Public Administrations, understanding public organizations as systems interact with their environment through inputs and outputs. It describes the changes the Federal Public Administration has undergone in the last few decades and how the Brazilian State manages information. Some of the legal framework related to the right to information created since the Federal Constitution of 1988 is also presented, in addition to elements of Brazil's Freedom of Information legislation. Detailing managerial aspects, the empirical part shows how the studied entities have organized themselves to comply with FOI law, describing institutional aspects, teams and competences, procedures, and conflicting elements identified in the process, based on interviews with the "operators" charged with FOIA compliance in each organization. In general, the research finds that structures focused on information policy have been institutionalized, with the emergence and consolidation of actors and procedures that aim to grant access to information and increase transparency.