摘要：Public Administration needs ethical values and legal instruments to prevent or minimize inexcusable administrative errors. This research is based on the Brazilian Administrative Misconduct Act and aims at diagnosing public officials’ conduct liable for culpable administrative impropriety and also analyzing how the Brazilian Administrative Misconduct Act can help to minimize inefficient behavior. The paper presents a structural analysis of the Brazilian Administrative Misconduct Act and verifies which conducts in the statute allow culpable behavior. Next, it presents actions and behaviors collected in cases judged in the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul state, in the period between 01/01/2010 and 12/19/2015, held accountable for culpable action or omission. The analysis identifies the causes of culpable actions. The research has a qualitative approach and the material used is from indirect sources. Finally, the research allowed the identification of a weak point affecting the operational efficiency and the presentation of how the 8.429/92 act clearly exhibits the preventive functionalities, undertaking the function of an educative law tool in the normative ethics field.
