Participação social junto ao orçamento público municipal: os casos de Capanema, Cametá e Marabá no Estado do Pará

Abstract

Social participation in Brazilian democracy was greatly boosted by the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution. Organized civil society gained momentum with the implementation of a new legal system that introduced popular participation on various topics, especially those that were referred to control as national and subnational public policies. Health, education, environment and public budget were some of the areas covered with items that standardized social participation definitively, in an attempt to bring the population closer to government planning and actions that directly affect the lives of all citizens. However, legal and normative support does not mean changing the profile of centuries of delays and setbacks that have always marked social participation in public policies in the country. Patrimonialism, slavery, successive dictatorships, submission and dependence of the poorest to the excesses of local governments, are still profound marks when it comes to expanded popular participation, as is the case of the Municipal Public Budget, where effective participation social is very far from a plausible reality, available executable or even close to the population, despite being one of the most important public policies at the municipal level, the target of this research. The theories that supported this research lead us to the concept of Deliberative Democracy and the formation of a Public Sphere by Jürgen Habermas, and the Social Construction of a Subcitizenship in Brazil by Jessé Souza, together with social participation in the Municipal Public Budget of Cametá, Capanema and Marabá in the State of Pará, more specifically analyzing an interaction between representatives of organized civil society in municipalities, Unions, Councils, etc., and as Municipal Secretaries of Administration or Planning, responsible for preparing the budget, organizing and carrying out Public Hearings for the debate of the Budget Guidelines Law (LDO) with local population, according to the Municipal Council of Councils that approve and supervise the budget of the municipalities and the Controllerships of the Court of Accounts of the Municipalities of Pará (TCM-PA), which oversee and budget execution of the municipalities from Pará. The main objective was to analyze how social participation happened with the municipal budget of Cametá, Capanema and Marabá in 2020, taking into account the role of the State, represented by the municipal executive and legislative power, and representatives of civil society, in the attempt to understand the apparent process of submission and apathy of the local citizen when preparing and approving the public budget by the municipal government. To carry out the research, the following methodological procedures were used: a) theoretical and conceptual bibliographic review of the theme; b) Analysis of the Pluriannual Plan, the Budget Guidelines Law and the Annual Budget Law of the surveyed municipalities; c) conducting individual interviews recorded with semi-structured questions with representatives of organized civil society, secretaries and municipal technicians, councilors of the budget and finance commissions of the surveyed municipalities, coordinators and technicians of the TCM-PA Controllerships responsible for the surveyed municipalities; d) Data analysis and systematization. The result explains the distancing of representatives from civil society from the public budget approved for 2020, the non-compliance with the legal rules for effective participation by city halls with the collusion of city councils and the neglect of TCM-PA regarding compliance with the rules constitutionally provided for the item Social Participation.