Accounting Controls and Legitimacy in an Elite Cartel Setting

PORPORATO, MARCELA; MORENO LÓPEZ, ALEJANDRA; MAHARAJ, GAJINDRA

Encuentro; School of Administrative Studies Meeting; 2019

YORK UNIVERSITY

This article aims at documenting a case that shows the use of transparency practices by a municipal government as an attempt to shift the power balance away from the local union thatrepresents all its employees. It builds on a critical theory (Bourdieu, 1990 and 2005) to understand why one of the actors, unions, have the power to perpetuate corrupt practices despite transparency and the efforts of governments and judiciary system. The tension among the two main actors, elected officials in the municipal government and union leaders also democratically elected, is centered around who can make appointments ofnew employees. It is believed that when a person or a direct relative or close friend is granted or given one of the coveted positions in the municipal administration, the person that granted that favour will get to dictate who to vote in municipal, provincial, national and union elections.Therefore, appointing employees is considered another electoral tool and tensions emerge when the municipal government pertains to a different political party than the union leaders. Extant literature on corruption practices using critical theories has documented mainly, if notexclusively, cases, situations and realities of a set of emerging countries: some from Africa (Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe), some from Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh) and some from the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago). All these countries have legal systems based on common law. This study advances the literature by exploring a case rooted in a Civil law context with the aim of demonstrating that practices prescribed as a solution to corruption in a Common law context do not work in an extreme case of civil law. The existing literature is silent on this topic, the few studies from Brazil and Turkey do not address the use of transparency as a tool to shift power at the municipal government level.