THE AUDIT COURTS OF THE STATE OF SAO PAULO AND THEIR EVALUATION ON THE GOVERNMENTAL SPENDING IN EDUCATION

This study is part of a major research about all the Audit Courts ACs) in Brazil and intends to examine how the ACs of Sao Paulo have been analyzing the governmental incomes and spending applied to the maintenance and development of teaching MDT), facing the existence of a great diversity of interpretations among the Brazilian ACs. Further, we point out some polemic results concerning two ACs in the State of Sao Paulo. 1) Although the Organic Law OL) of the Sao Paulo municipality stipulated up to 2001) the minimal percentage of 30%, the AC that examines the municipal government's accounts was based on the 25% fixed by the Federal Constitution FC); 2) Mistakes committed by the AC of the State when calculating the State incomes, as the inclusion of the education-salary and agreements in the calculated base of 30% fixed by the FC, when it should be added to the minimum and to the non-accountability of backward taxes, of the federal taxes transfers and of the service fee incomes of educational segments of the State government; 3) Classification as MDT of expenses not included into its legal definition as the inactive ones that totaled up R$ 2 million in 1998. The conclusion is that the definitions of the educational legislation - Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educacao Nacional - LDB Brazilian Basic Tenets Law) - specifically Law number 9.424 do not assure the use of the education allocated amount which depends much more on the practices adopted by Secretaries of Finance and their acceptance by the ACs rather than the referred legislation.