Abstract
The research’s hypothesis is that Brazilian law establishes public ombudsmen as an essential tool for transparency. This paper follows a bibliographic and documentary methodology, aiming to approach the legal aspects of the connection between public ombudsmen and the principle of transparency, besides federative aspects that indicate structuring model to ombudsmen units. The article starts with doctrinal and constitutional elements, such as the “right to be heard”, the “right of access to information” and the “rights of public service users”. It reveals a tendency of the derived constituent power to vote constitutional amendments with clear mention to ombudsman figure. Then, provisions from “Brazilian’s Freedom of Information Act” and “Brazilian’s Defense Code of Public Service Users” point an expressive emphasis on competencies of public ombudsmen. Lastly, some federal guidelines indicate important patterns, such as “Model of Maturity in Public Ombudsman”, a technical document produced by the Brazilian Federal Government Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), as a reference to states and municipalities to structure their own ombudsmen units. Federal patterns are an alternative because Brazilian law does not offer a common legal and national standard for the effective establishment of ombudsmen, which are decisive for the public transparency.
Keywords:
Ombudsman; Transparency; Public service users; Access to information