Budget Transparency for Monitoring Public Policies: Limits of Technology and Context

The purpose of this study was to develop a method to seek information for organization of civilian society to monitor public budgeting. To this end, a methodological approach based on Design Science Research through the building of artifacts was used, making theoretical and practical contributions to the field. The research question that guided the study was: how can a civil society organization monitor the achievement of public policy goals using information available on transparency websites? The objects of the study were the National Education Plan (NEP), which sets the goals for the development of education in Brazil, and the public budget of the federal government. By constructing the method, it was possible to deduce some aspects regarding the implications of transparency for the monitoring and projection of public policies. In the context in question, budget transparency was scarce on the websites. When monitoring is possible, society is interested in using budget transparency to project the enactment of a public policy rather than only monitor the past. A generalized method was proposed for monitoring public policies that enables this projection in the Brazilian context.