Are the State Public Universities of São Paulo Suffering a Financial Crisis or a Governance Crisis?

• Autor(a) principal: Atvars, Teresa Dib Zambon
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng; por
• Título da fonte: Contabilidade, Gestão e Governança
• Texto Completo: https://revistacgg.org/index.php/contabil/article/view/3141
• topic: São Paulo Public Universities; Autonomy and Governance; General Comptroller's Offices; Internal Control Systems; Universidades Públicas Paulistas; Autonomia e Governança; Controladoria Geral; Sistema de Controle Interno

Objective: To analyze, based on the requirements of good public governance, the resilience of three public universities in the State of São Paulo (USP, Unesp, and Unicamp) in the face of future financialcrises. Method: Utilizing basic principles of autonomy linked to the budget to address the role of General Comptroller’s Offices (GCOs) and Internal Control Systems (ICSs) as decision-making support bodies in a governance model that uses risk analysis as strategic information. Originality/Relevance: This is the first time that a comparative analysis of pos-facto measures that are categorized as good public governance has been presented for these three universities, and it concludes that these universities are at different stages of changes in governance. Results: It shows that the financial crisis experienced by these three universities has occurred due to the combination of a financial crisis in this country and an unsustainable increase in university spending without proper risk analysis. Based on the information available on the open web portals, we have found that USP has effectively implemented a GCO and ICS as one of their pos-facto measures, but in general, internal corporate-political criteria still predominate in decision-makingregarding increased spending. Theoretical/Methodological Contributions: It demonstrates the relevance of GCOs and ICSs in the governance of public universities with autonomy and budgetary restrictions. Social/Management Contributions: The main contribution is that it demonstrates the importance of more effective interactions with external stakeholders in institutional decisions, in contrast to the current model of decision-making making which is guided mainly by internalcorporate/political criteria.