A STUDY ABOUT THE DONATIONS MADE BY PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANIES TO POLITICAL PARTIES IN ELECTIONS IN BRAZIL 2014

The aim of this study was to determine the level of voluntary disclosure of donations to political parties in Brazilian elections in 2014 by companies listed on the BM& FBOVESPA, and observe if the corporate governance and external audit influenced in the process of disclosure. Data collection was segregated in two phases. For the first phase were collected information on donations to political parties and committees, on corporate governance, market segments and external audit. The second part was conducted through the applying of a checklist drawn from the presumption of relevance of accounting information that would be considered useful by external users of accounting. In order to implement the checklist the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement, the Notes and the Management Reports of the sample of the study were analyzed. As results it was observed that only one company mentioned the donations made to political parties in the notes, but did not disclose which parties were benefited, what were the criteria considered to choose the parties and how many were donated. It was also observed that the differentiated levels of corporate governance and the being audited by "big four" firm did not exert influence on the level of voluntary disclosure