Horizontal Accountability Expansion in Brazil: The Federal Accounting Court

Abstract

This paper analyzes Federal Accounting Court’s (Tribunal de Contas da União) horizontal accountability role in Brazil. The Court is an office that supports Legislative Power oversight tasks. The paper describes Court’s empowerment beyond such tasks and the broadening of its horizontal accountability functions after democratization. It shows the progressive enlargement of its oversight mandate, mainly supervising Executive Power bureaucracy, and the effects of the empowered job holding public policies ccountable and increasing transparency. The paper places Court’s trajectory within a world tendency of empowering external oversight or horizontal accountability institutions.