Barreiras à implementação da lei de acesso à informação : estudo de caso nos três poderes do Estado do RS

Abstract

The transparency of governmental actions strengthens citizenship and democracy. Numerous nations have focused on transparency; its proof is the worldwide proliferation of laws on access to information. Brazil which its underlied by the opacity culture has recently enacted Law 12.527/2011 (Access to Information Act - AIA) which seeks to promote an open government culture. However, previous studies have shown that many organizations do not meet their guidelines. This work aims to analyze the main barriers faced by public organizations to implement AIA guidelines. Thus, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted by case of study means, applied on the board of governors of Executive, Legislative and Judiciary of Rio Grande do Sul state. The data collection occurred in three distinguished phases: 1) active transparency (analyses of the available information in electronic sites); 2) passive transparency (electronic request of information); and 3) interview with five experts in access to information and the three Citizen Information Services managers from the institutions. Such method allowed crosschecking between organizational practice and management perception, providing a broader understanding of the barriers AIA faces in public organizations. The interviews were analyzed with the Content Analyses Technician’s support and acquired as a final result the identification of seventeen main barriers, which were classified in six categories: Quantity of Information, Quality of Information, Organizational Culture, Processes and Technology of Work, People (civil servants) and Organizational Structure.