Law of Access to Information on the Municipalities of Far Western Santa Catarina

Abstract

The Brazilian Law for Information Access (LAI), nº 12.527 of November 18, 2011, regulates the access to public information at all levels of government. The objective is to investigate compliance with the LAI in Santa Catarina municipalities that are members of the Association of Municipalities of Far Western Santa Catarina (AMEOSC). The study used a descriptive, documental and quantitative methodology, using a checklist and a questionnaire to collect information of the 13 municipal governments in the AMEOSC. A review was conducted of the literature concerning the LAI, the archival administration and the life cycle of documents. Of the 13 questionnaires issued, six municipalities responded, three of which had populations greater than 10,000, and, therefore, are required to provide access to LAI and three under 10,000. It was concluded that it is too early to conduct a broad evaluation of compliance of LAI in the municipalities studied, given that it was approved in 2011 and the municipal governments are still preparing to comply, considering obstacles such as insufficient human resources, insufficient promotion and awareness by public employees in general.