Controle social do saneamento em Natal/RN - características e deliberações dos conselhos

Abstract

The redemocratization of the Brazilian State through the promulgation of the magna carta (CF-1988) led to the creation of participatory institutions. The social control through the creation and implementation of public policies is one of the tools that enables the population to control, monitor, evaluate and decide through its representatives on the destination of the implementation of some measure and to fight to improve the quality of a service. In addition, by participating in the creation and implementation of a public policy, society is the largest beneficiary, since it is the one who benefits from the services. Even with the expansion of representative democracy, record of social struggles, insertion of participatory institutions in public management, the limits of representative democracy are still present with conservative and centralizing hierarchical characteristics of the State. The objective was to evaluate the deliberative capacity of the Municipal Council of Basic Sanitation - COMSAB of the Municipality of Natal, State of Rio Grande do Norte, focusing on municipal sanitation policy, through the processes of discussion and deliberation of public sanitation policies. For this, the following aspects were considered: inclusion and deliberative equality, proposition of new themes, decision and control over public actions. We also present concepts such as deliberative democracy, public deliberation and deliberative effectiveness, for a better understanding of the means of expanding representative democracy and the possible roles to be exercised by municipal sanitation councils. This research analyzed the degree of institutionalization in four councils (sanitation, environment, city, health), with attributions related to the theme of sanitation, through the documentary survey of laws and internal regiments - IR, which allowed a better visualization of internal dynamics; subsequently, the deliberative effectiveness was verified in the Sanitation Council of Natal/RN - COMSAB, which consisted on the analysis of the minutes of the ordinary and extraordinary meetings of the years listed (2016-2020). Formal observations of the meetings, contacts with the special/executive secretariats of the councils and formal interviews with some counselors were conducted. The results of the research indicate COMSAB as of high deliberative capacity. Even with the systematic predominance of government in meetings, its decisions often fell on internal organization. Representatives of civil society presented high capacity, as they brought to the debating tables the largest number of proposals, mainly in relation to the municipal management of sanitation and resources.