Given the context of consolidation of the democratic experience in Brazil, this research seeks to analyze the role of the Brazilian National Congress in controlling and supervising the federal bureaucracies, aiming to contribute to the improvement of the control over federal agencies. In order to accomplish the documental research, it has been used the case of the Brazilian Central Bank (Bacen). The research has been carried out by investigating the legal governance mechanisms created over the Bacen which are represented by the existing legislation at October/2003. It has been concluded that the delegation process and, consequently, the dynamics of accountability in use by the National Congress seem to be flawed. This can be attributed to the fact that the oversight authority over Bacen is effectively practiced by the Executive, which is the ultimate owner of the power over that public entity. Thus, the legislative control becomes more complex and usually limited to circumstances under which decisions are already taken, as it has not been previously linked with the stages of formulation and implementation of the monetary policy.
agency theory; principal-agent approach; congressional oversight; bureaucracy; Brazilian Central Bank