A atuação do Tribunal de Contas do estado do Tocantins no controle externo da gestão pública: uma análise da política de transporte escolar em municípios tocantinenses

Abstract

Since the creation of school transport programs, whether federal, such as the Caminho da Escola Program and the National Support Program for School Transport – PNATE, or state, such as the School Transport Maintenance Program of the State of Tocantins, the amount of Resources allocated to providing school transport services to states and municipalities have been increasing significantly, which demands a more vigorous action from the control bodies, notably the Court of Auditors. On October 20, 2021, the Court of Auditors of the State of Tocantins (TCE-TO), through Resolution TCE/TO No. 906/2021, imposed a fine on 26 municipalities in the Bico do Papagaio microregion for irregularities found in the inspection of the vehicles, carried out by the Tocantins State Department of Traffic (DETRAN-TO), in the second half of 2018. Given this situation, this research sought to find out to what extent the performance of the Tocantins Court of Auditors has contributed to improving the policy of school transport. To this end, bibliographic and documentary data were collected and an electronic questionnaire was applied to 14 of the 26 municipalities fined by the Court, and, through a qualitative and quantitative approach, Bardin's content analysis was carried out for some data ( 1977), and for others the descriptive analysis, with the crossing of information through the data triangulation method. The results indicate that the TCE-TO exercised several powers to improve school transport in the State of Tocantins from 2018 to 2022, whether promoting training/courses to its jurisdictions, issuing recommendations and determinations or applying sanctions in processes of this nature. The data show that the fined municipalities had a significant reduction in the number of indicators considered unfit in the year 2022 as a result of these TCE-TO actions and the recurring inspections carried out by DETRAN-TO. The management and internal inspection of the school fleet by the municipalities are still incipient, as it focuses on solving occasional irregularities and not on a permanent management system based on compliance with legal requirements and on the quality of service provision. It was also observed the need to provide transparency to the evaluation and measurement criteria of the School Transport Maintenance Program of the State of Tocantins to assist the control bodies in carrying out more specific inspections, with a focus on economy, equity, efficiency and effectiveness, and for social control.