Since the creation of school transport programs, whether federal, such as the Caminho da Escola
Program and the National Support Program for School Transport – PNATE, or state, such as
the School Transport Maintenance Program of the State of Tocantins, the amount of Resources
allocated to providing school transport services to states and municipalities have been
increasing significantly, which demands a more vigorous action from the control bodies,
notably the Court of Auditors. On October 20, 2021, the Court of Auditors of the State of
Tocantins (TCE-TO), through Resolution TCE/TO No. 906/2021, imposed a fine on 26
municipalities in the Bico do Papagaio microregion for irregularities found in the inspection of
the vehicles, carried out by the Tocantins State Department of Traffic (DETRAN-TO), in the
second half of 2018. Given this situation, this research sought to find out to what extent the
performance of the Tocantins Court of Auditors has contributed to improving the policy of
school transport. To this end, bibliographic and documentary data were collected and an
electronic questionnaire was applied to 14 of the 26 municipalities fined by the Court, and,
through a qualitative and quantitative approach, Bardin's content analysis was carried out for
some data ( 1977), and for others the descriptive analysis, with the crossing of information
through the data triangulation method. The results indicate that the TCE-TO exercised several
powers to improve school transport in the State of Tocantins from 2018 to 2022, whether
promoting training/courses to its jurisdictions, issuing recommendations and determinations or
applying sanctions in processes of this nature. The data show that the fined municipalities had
a significant reduction in the number of indicators considered unfit in the year 2022 as a result
of these TCE-TO actions and the recurring inspections carried out by DETRAN-TO. The
management and internal inspection of the school fleet by the municipalities are still incipient,
as it focuses on solving occasional irregularities and not on a permanent management system
based on compliance with legal requirements and on the quality of service provision. It was
also observed the need to provide transparency to the evaluation and measurement criteria of
the School Transport Maintenance Program of the State of Tocantins to assist the control bodies
in carrying out more specific inspections, with a focus on economy, equity, efficiency and
effectiveness, and for social control.
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