This paper examines the procedures adopted by the Audit Office (AO) of the Brazilian State of Piauí to check the revenues and expenditures linked to education. It found that such procedures oscillate and are not very clearly and firmly defined. For example, although the State Constitution of Piauí stipulates that a minimum of 30% of tax revenue be earmarked to the legally-defined concept of maintenance and development of education (MDE), the AO only began to require it be enforced after a resolution issued in 1998. Yet, it allowed the capital city of Teresina and other townships to only gradually comply with it and reach 30% in the year of 2002. In 2004, however, the AO reduced this requirement to 25% (the minimum set by the Federal Constitution). As for the accounting of revenues and expenditures, procedures have also varied. Resolution 1.606 (1998), for example, does not detail the revenues linked to MDE. Regarding the expenses classified as MDE, the AO added some items not provided for in articles 70 and 71 of the Brazilian General Law on Education (LDB), thus confounding expenses legally defined as MDE with others classified as education in the Federal Budgetary Law.
Education funding; Revenues and expenses on education; Audit Office of the Brazilian State of Piauí