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Is the Federal Audit Court a political body?

Abstract

The article seeks to investigate whether or not the Federal Audit Court (TCU) can be seen as a political body. There is a divergence between the adjectivation that is conferred to the Court (TCU), sometimes being called a technical organ, sometimes a political organ. The paper aims to investigate if TCU would have the political character, approaching three differentiated aspects: the composition of TCU members; the function exercised by the Court; the external influence on its attributions and the one exercised by the Federal Audit Court in the legislative processes. For the realization of the paper, the method of inductive approach is used, having descriptive and exploratory nature regarding the purposes and bibliographical and documentary as regards the means. In the end, it is observed that the understanding of TCU as a political organ depends precisely on the criterion used. Thus, it is concluded that: a) Regarding the TCU members, the Constitution does not prevent or encourage the Court to appear as a political body. However, the practice shows that TCU is constituted as political, prevailing appointments with a political character; b) when guided by the function performed, TCU is not political; c) in relation to the external influence suffered in some of its attributions, as well as the influence and participation that it exerts in the legislative process, TCU appears like a political organ.

Keywords:
Federal Audit Court; political organ; justices of TCU; administrative function; discretion

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