ABSTRACT
The Law on Access to Information (LAI) represents the reaffirmation of transparency as a key component of the credibility and effectiveness of State actions. Thus, if the informations on public-electronic sites are unavailable, incomplete and/or incomprehensible, it may compromise the factual compliance of the LAI and the promotion of transparency. The main objective of this study was to develop a two-dimensional index of transparency oriented to the electronic sites of the federal universities based on the evaluation of the quality of their information. This index has a focus on information as a “product”, with attributes determined by a mostly intuitive-theoretical approach. The main results identified: more and less transparent sites and benchmarks. The index made it possible to verify, with high precision, the quality of the information of the sites, which was not very transparent, insufficient for the proper understanding by the citizen. This appeared to indicate little involvement by both public officials to comply with the law and stakeholders to exercise social control. Along with a reliable index of transparency, awareness, union and social action for transparency are fundamental to the evolution of social participation and social control.
Keywords:
Law on Access to Information; Quality of public information; Active transparency