City administration transparency index: a study of the most populous cities in Rio Grande do norte state/ Indice de transparencia municipal: um estudo nos municipios mais populosos do Rio Grande do norte /Indice de transparencia municipal: un estudio en los municipios mas poblados de Rio Grande do norte

The general purpose of this study is to analyse the transparency in the most populous cities in Rio Grande do Norte state by means of a methodology proposed by Biderman e Puttomatti (2011).In order to achieve this objective, Rio Grande do Norte cities with a population of at least 50,000 in habitantes were selected. This resulted in a sample of eight cities (Natal, Mossoro, Parnamirim, Sao Goncalo do Amarante, Macaiba, Ceara-Mirim, Caico e Acu). The methodology employed to establish a rank of the cities transparencies, by means of analysis of their websites, included variables such as budget execution, budget classification, contracts, historical series, optional download, ease of navigation, which are divided in three parameters: contents, historical series, update and usability. According to the results, among the eight cities analysed, Natal had the best transparency index, with a 79% score, followed by Parnamirim (72%) and Caico (67%). Furthermore, a comparison of the performance of the cities in the three parameters analysed showed that the cities had higher scores on items related to historical series and update. The conclusion is that the city administrations subject to the survey still need to improve their information transparency levels so that citizens may have a better experience with the contents provided in the official websites and that the population may bring into effect the social control of the public management practices in a more effective way. Keywords: Index. Transparency. Municipalities. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral analisar a transparencia dos municipios mais populosos do Rio Grande do Norte (RN), a partir da metodologia proposta por Biderman e Puttomatti (2011). Para atingir esse objetivo, foram selecionados os municipios do RN que possuiam mais de 50.000 habitantes, o que resultou numa amostra de oito municipios (Natal, Mossoro, Parnamirim, Sao Goncalo do Amarante, Macaiba, Ceara-Mirim, Caico e Acu). A metodologia utilizada para estabelecer um ranking de transparencia dos municipios analisa nos sitios municipais variaveis como, Execucao orcamentaria, Classificacao Orcamentaria, Contratos, Series Historicas, Possibilidade de download, Facilidade de navegacao que sao divididas em tres parametros: Conteudo, Serie Historica e frequencia de atualizacao e Usabilidade. Os resultados revelaram que o municipio que apresentou o melhor indice de transparencia, entre os oito analisados, foi Natal, com 79% da pontuacao possivel, segu