Outsourcing of fiscal transparency portals by municipalities

Abstract

The outsourcing of municipal fiscal transparency portals can be a fragile, superficial project and susceptible to outdated data. This paper explores how Brazilian municipalities carry out their transparency portals and the effects on fiscal transparency projects. We applied a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to sixteen municipalities within the same geopolitical area. These municipalities have signed a Management Adjustment Term with the Court of Accounts, which enforced fiscal transparency. After signing this Term, some municipalities contracted-out their fiscal transparency portals as a strategy for compliance with the Adjustment Term. Our findings have evidenced two decisive aspects for the persistence of updated data on the portals, first, whether the transparency portal is integrated with the financial management information system and, second, a real-time registering for budgetary transactions on the accounting system.