Join Sérgio Seabra, Federal Auditor of the Office of the Comptroller General of Brazil (currently on secondment to the Ministry of Human Rights as Special Advisor to the Minister in Internal Control), and Michael Barzelay, Professor of Public Management at the LSE’s School of Management, as they discuss the results of their research on a successful governmental enterprise aimed at reducing public sector corruption.

The enterprise was the municipality-facing auditing programme conducted by Brazil’s Office of the Comptroller General. The research was carried out to advance professional knowledge on applying auditing for this purpose. It clarifies the implications of including fighting public sector corruption as part of a governmental audit agency’s strategy. The authors did so by conducting a design-focused case study, through which they obtained insights on the sources of the programme’s success and sustainability. The analysis demonstrated how critical features enabled the programme to operate effectively as a functioning whole. Like any design-focused case study, this one identified ‘handcaps’ and ‘traps’ of similar enterprises within government, and demonstrated how they were neutralised by the programme and its context. As such, this study expand professional knowledge about the challenge of creating state capacity to fight corruption through government-wide audit programs.

This event will be moderated by Nik Kirby, Research Fellow in Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School.