Municipal performance in the public administration of Programa Bolsa Família: analysis of the decentralized management index in Minas Gerais

Abstract

This study analyzes the factors that determine the management of Programa Bolsa Família (Family Grant Program) in the State of Minas Gerais. The work uses as reference the Índice de Gestão Decentralizada (IGD - Decentralized Management Index) of Programa Bolsa Família, created by the Federal Government in order to regulate, standardize and motivate both efficiency and quality in the program's management in the municipal level. The theoretical approaches used here were based on the management and decentralization of public policies to contextualize Programa Bolsa Família in the region under study. The work follows a quantitative-qualitative approach, in which some of the programs' documents and institutional reports were analyzed. The statistical techniques Exploratory Data Analysis and Pearson's Correlation Tests were employed in the interpretation of the results. One of the obtained results was the existence, in Minas Gerais, of municipalities with low scores in the items composing the IGD, showing deficiencies in several aspects, such as CadÚnico (Brazil's Social Programs record system) information and management of the conditioning factors "health" and "education". These factors expose the fragility of the municipal public and social administration and hinder the program's efficiency in the State. Other factors, like the increase in the population and in the number of benefited families, also negatively affect the program's management, since the larger municipalities presented lower IGD scores.