A gestão de riscos como instrumento para a aplicação efetiva do Princípio Constitucional da Eficiência

Abstract

Facing the fear of being responsible for Brazilian public managers requires rethinking the actions of the State and its institutions. The culture of control — through normative and inspection means — evidenced that it not only did not prevent the occurrence of corruption events but also had an adverse effect: the decrease in the efficiency of the State. This theoretical essay aims to discuss how risk management can become an instrument that contributes to the achievement of the objectives of public agencies by effectively applying the principle of efficiency. Briefly, this is accomplished by broadly assessing various classes of risk that can impact objectives’ achievement, not only corruption risks. For this, it is essential to discuss the importance of efficiency as a constitutional principle in counterpoint to the narrower views of the principle of legality. That said, it is possible to use the internationally accepted theory of risk management to systematically build justified decisions that various instances can validate - the so-called lines of defense, and thus use risk management as an instrument for the application of the principle of efficiency in the same way that the rules itself are an instrument for the application of the principle of legality. It is hoped that this essay can contribute to the debate on the principle of efficiency, especially when public agencies create a structure to manage risks with the support of the agencies’ board of directors, their internal auditors, and the external control agencies.