Da aprendizagem virtual às práticas cotidianas: concepção de servidores em relação à aplicação da Lei de Acesso à Informação na Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Abstract

This research aims to investigate, from the point of view of civil servants and within the scope of the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), the compliance with Law No. 12,527, November 18, 2011, known as the Access to Information Law (LAI), after their participation in a corporate training course on this law, as well as their conception of transparency from a qualified perspective. The corporate training in the federal public administration is guided by greater efficiency and effectiveness of public management towards both enhancing the role of civil servants and improving the services provided to citizens. Thus, the research also aims at mapping out good practices acquired through the training to improve public transparency, which goes beyond the automatic compliance to the law. As instrument to collect data for this predominantly qualitative work, we used an online Google Forms questionnaire that was sent to 141 servants with valid contacts, from both teaching and administrative staffs, who completed one of the distance learning courses held in 2017, 2018 and 2019. We obtained a 25.53% feedback, which is equivalent to 36 respondents. The data were analyzed according to Content Analysis from the perspective of Bardin (2002), in the light of the theoretical framework on cyberdemocracy, accountability, social control, public transparency and how these topics, in turn, are related to the guidelines of the new public management and the training of civil servants. The results of this research demonstrate that the civil servants developed good practices as well as a greater awareness of UFPB's transparency. We conclude that they conceive that transparency at UFPB is in the process of consolidation when fulfilling what is determined by LAI, but that it is in general hindered by aspects strongly entrenched in the institution, such as organizational culture and politics.