Strategic practices of budgeting and billing in public administration: a case study in the Brazilian Navy

Abstract

In the public institutions of Brazilian direct administration the availability of financial resources is based on yearly budget funds; the process for use of resources is set in legislation and can be time consuming; and unused funds in one fiscal year can not be allocated to the following year. This context of constraints to action becomes particularly complex for organizations that act in the area of Science, Technology & Innovation, like Centro de Análises de Sistemas Navais - CASNAV, that belongs to the Brazilian Navy. Thus, the objective of the research was to analyze how CASNAV’s strategic practices of budgeting and billing are formed, in order to deal with the restrictions and rules of public administration, according to the perception of practitioners involved in the process. This study was based on the perspective of strategy as a social practice and focused on the model of Whittington (2006). The single case study had a descriptive nature, which data collection was done through interviews, observation and analysis of documents and then treated by content analysis technique. Among the main results of the analysis highlights that: a) formation of strategic practices is directly linked to the process of interaction with customers; b) flexibility to deal with the financial or budgetary constraints is largely related to the client's needs; and (c) budgeting and billing practice is made possible by formalization of practitioners’ attributions, the proactivity and interaction with customers and the managerial skills developed internally.