Aspectos orçamentários e financeiros de uma universidade federal brasileira

Abstract

The contemporary university is in an unstable environment and is impacted by changes in its structural forms and dynamic processes. In addition to all the internal changes, new pressures are generated from outside the university as there is a latent dependence on external resources and the scenario presented is that of an environment of economic crises and marked by the implementation of austerity policies. In this sense, federal universities must take actions to manage the pressures exerted on them, and part of this process begins with the identification of their financial vulnerabilities. Thus, this research aims to identify and describe the sources of perceived budgetary and financial vulnerability present in a federal university, as a higher education and research organization in Brazil. Additionally, an attempt was made to describe how its budget cycle is structured and its organizational responses to these perceived vulnerabilities. To this end, a case study was carried out, using document analysis and fifteen interviews with people linked to the organization's budget and financial process. Initially, it was observed that the perceived vulnerabilities faced by the analyzed university concern the uncertainty regarding the deadlines for approval of the federal budget and the volume of budgetary resources, the delay in the financial transfer, the impossibility of constituting financial reserves, the planning incipient budget, the absence of a management information system, the lack of uniformity of information, the inefficiency in the procedural instruction, the absence of participation in the budget proposal and the lack of personnel and training. In view of these results, the study contributes by promoting the discussion about the financial difficulties faced by Brazilian federal universities, which will bring light to these problems and help management in the construction of strategies to transform reality. Furthermore, the study provides visibility of institutional actions already implemented that are aimed at the survival of the organization.