O impacto da opinião de auditoria financeira na apreciação de prestações de contas anuais em Tribunais de Contas subnacionais

Financial auditing is fundamental to financial reporting, as it lends credibility to the documents. Therefore, financial auditing is widely established in the private sector, being, for example, mandatory for companies listed on the Brazilian stock exchange. However, in the public sector, it is still in the implementation phase. In this sense, this study is pioneering in mapping the circumstances under which financial auditing is carried out in Brazilian subnational Courts of Accounts, analyzing the impact that this type of audit has had on the assessment of annual financial statements in these courts. Through a specific questionnaire, an auditor from each subnational Court of Accounts was asked whether their respective court has implemented financial auditing and, if so, what their personal perception is of the value the court places on it, whether it is included in the annual financial statement assessment process, and whether there has been any rejection of annual accounts due to a financial audit opinion. The results reveal that about half of the courts still do not conduct financial audits and, among those that do, the impact of the financial audit opinion is practically nil on the assessment of annual accounts. Therefore, it can be concluded that, despite being indispensable in the analysis of financial information, the Brazilian public sector has not fully benefited from the advantages that this type of audit provides.