Constitutional principle of efficiency and the public policies for the control of Aedes aegypti at the Brazilian Ministry of Health: Discouraging the search for more effective solutions

Abstract

The present study aimed to analyze whether the option of the Brazilian Ministry of Health to maintain the monitoring of Aedes aegypti almost exclusively through research of larvae, conditioning the transfer of financial resources to the municipalities to the fulfillment of goals related to this monitoring, meets the criteria of economicity and satisfaction of the public interest, components of the constitutional principle of efficiency. To do so, after accurately reviewing the literature, we analyzed the division of attributions between the federated entities for environmental surveillance, the system of goals of the Ministry of Health and its influence on the transfer of public resources. We analyzed the forms of monitoring, comparing the research of larvae with the use of traps for entomological research purposes, problematizing the form established by the Ministry of Health regarding the cost-benefit ratio, as well as the use of the system of goals as a way of centralizing power. We concluded that the imposition by the Ministry of Health to perform the monitoring of Aedes aegypti, by means of larvae research, does not meet the criteria of economicity neither the satisfaction of the public interest, thus violating the constitutional principle of efficiency.