Valor Econômico - Special Section - Fighting Corruption - 17/08/2012

An unprecedented certification in the country will be able to indicate whether a public or private company has adopted mechanisms to prevent and track fraud and corruption. Developed by the Vanzolini Foundation, the certification establishes minimum requirements for the implementation of a management system to combat illegal acts.

In addition to improving the organization's internal rules and processes, the system provides for practices to inhibit inappropriate actions. “The certification does not intend to show that the institutions are immune to unfair events, but that, after being certified, they have mechanisms to identify and combat fraudulent processes. This specification should qualify companies with excellence in good corporate practices ”, says José Salvador da Silva Filho, the foundation's new business manager. The certification will be announced on the 22nd and the foundation expects that in 12 months at least 15 major companies will have adopted the tool.

The system began to be designed exactly a year ago and was based on initiatives by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Union's Comptroller General (CGU) and the United Nations Convention against Corruption. “Our role as a certifying body will not be to identify fraud, but to assess whether the company is organized to address the issue seriously. What will lead to greater performance will be the maturity of the management ”, explains Silva Filho.

The first step for a company to be certified is to define internal rules, for example, to have a policy to combat fraud and corruption. Once this policy was defined, the organization would have to do a due diligence, an in-depth assessment to identify the risks and threats of fraud and corruption, as well as actual and potential conflicts of interest. “Finally, to assess the impacts and damages that its practices can cause in the entire production chain and the significance of these risks and their occurrences”, says Silva Filho.

“The same policy can be extended to the value chain, reaching suppliers, customers, and can involve partners in this assessment. This stage is what we call due diligence and risk alarm ”, adds the executive. Once the risks are detected, it will be time to establish objectives, goals and programs to improve management performance in preventing and combating fraud and corruption. "Having implemented all the requirements, the Vanzolini Foundation will now audit the company and find out if it is meeting these specifications," he says.