Elaboração do Orçamento Participativo como instrumento de participação popular: um estudo de caso no município de João Pessoa

Abstract

The Brazilian public accounting is in a moment of transformation and is making use of new practices in Public Finance that seek to be more transparent and managerially responsible. A good example of this is the Participatory Budgeting (OP), which is a democratic tool that provides transparency to the revenue allocation process, regulating the expenditures of municipalities and states that use it, because it allows citizens to set priorities for investments in works and services to be carried out each year, besides stimulating the exercise of citizenship and the responsibility between government and society on city management. Therefore, since OP is a fundamental element for public administration finances, its success depends on the methodology and processes used in its preparation stages. Given this context, this study was developed with the objective of verifying the procedures for the development of the Participatory Budget elaboration stages for the city of João Pessoa. To this end, a case study carried out at the Executive Secretariat of Participatory Budgeting of the municipality with a descriptive approach was used as a means of investigation. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire that was applied to 54 participants of the OP plenary sessions and an interview with the secretary of the city's Participatory Budget. It was found, through this study, that the city of João Pessoa understands the relevance and effectiveness that the PB has as a financial management tool and precisely for this reason has been obtaining good results in the sense of: have real decision-making capacity in the distribution of public resources and investments; expand and consolidate popular participation in all stages of the preparation of budget proposals. This causes the OP to perpetuate itself and go beyond party choices, consolidating itself as a people's achievement.