Arranjos colaborativos para compras públicas de baixo carbono no Tribunal de Contas do Estado de Sergipe

Abstract

Objective: This study analyzed the institutional configurations that condition the use of collaborative practices in the incorporation of low-carbon criteria in public procurement at the Court of Accounts of the State of Sergipe (TCE/SE), from 2016 to 2025. Methodology: Exploratory-descriptive, applied, and mixed-methods research, configured as a single case study with embedded units (Yin, 2015). The mixed design articulated three analytical strands: negative binomial regression applied to the 32 public notices with explicit environmental criteria, to identify the longitudinal evolution of the criteria over the analyzed period; crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) on the 135 notices published during the period, to identify the documentary configurations associated with environmental incorporation; and csQCA on the responses of six Tribunal staff members and actors linked to external control, to examine the perceptual configurations in public procurement planning. Analyses were conducted in R software, with consistency thresholds of 0.90 for necessity and 0.80 for sufficiency, and integrated across the three dimensions of the triadic model built through a PRISMA systematic review: institutional context, collaborative governance, and monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) mechanisms. Main Results: Documentary findings revealed environmental incorporation in a minority fraction of the archive, with advances concentrated in the 2024-2025 biennium under the consolidated enforcement of Law No. 14,133/2021, and identified the articulation between environmental mechanisms and metrics, execution governance, and technical capacity as the dominant pathway for explicit environmental incorporation in the notices. Perceptual findings identified internal co-production and external collaborative governance as structural conditions for the perceived consolidation among respondents. Triangulation revealed the monitoring paradox: the documentary formalization of contract oversight is at a more consolidated stage than the institutional learning cycle that may derive from it. The research proposed eight indicators for monitoring low-carbon procurement, organized around the three dimensions of the triadic model, and developed, as a TechnicalTechnological Product, the dashboard “Low-Carbon Public Procurement”, made available on the TCE/SE Observatory. Theoretical and Methodological Contributions: Theoretically, the study shifts the analysis of low-carbon public procurement from an isolated-factors logic to a configurational logic and proposes the monitoring paradox as a contribution to the debate on co-production and collaborative governance. Methodologically, it offers a replicable design combining negative binomial regression and two csQCAs around the three dimensions of the triadic model, an approach still underexplored in Brazilian external control institutions. Relevance and Originality: Low-carbon public procurement constitutes a strategic instrument for inducing economic, social, and environmental standards aligned with decarbonization; in Brazil, between 2021 and 2025, more than 643,000 procurement processes moved R$ 1.54 trillion, demonstrating systemic impact. The originality of the study lies in the simultaneous articulation of documentary and perceptual evidence in the examination of a Brazilian state Court of Accounts. Social and Management Contributions: The study reinforces the pedagogical and preventive role of external control and offers, through the eight proposed indicators and dashboard, instruments for decentralized application, aligned with the Annual Procurement Plan and the normative framework of the climate agenda.