Voluntary disclosure of public entity: “an overview on the state of Minas, Brazil”

Abstract

The disclosure can be considered one of the main communication ways among entities and information users. Within the public administration, governments must to account their acts towards society and items disclosed voluntarily are gaining prominence by presenting a language more accessible to a larger number of users. This study aims to identify the disclosure level of voluntary information on public management in electronic portals of municipalities in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, through the Index of the Voluntary Disclosure for municipal issues (IVD-M). The study sample was composed by 130 municipalities covering 65 public entities classified as medium and large size entities and 65 considered as small size entities. Results showed that the municipalities of medium and large size have high mean scores up to 9 among the 14 IVD-M categories providing evidence that the entity size is positively associated with disclosure levels. Although transparency is considered a way to contribute directly for efficiency achievement in public management besides generating credibility for public entities, the studied municipalities did not seem to prioritize voluntary disclosure, since the found indices are generally considered low.