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

Corruption practices in Brazil subtract from the economy an amount that goes from R $ 51,4 billion, in a reasonable scenario, to R $ 84,5 billion, in the worst of situations. It means a deviation between 1,38% and 2,3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the world ranking of “perceived corruption”, an indicator established by the NGO Transparency International with 180 countries, Brazil occupies the 73rd position, behind nations like Puerto Rico (39th), South Korea (43rd), Kuwait (54th) and Malaysia , who is in 60th place. The score, which ranges from 0 to 10 - with 0 indicating the worst level - was 2,7 in 1995 for Brazil and is now 3,8, below the 2011 global average of 4,05.

The Corruption Perception Index (ICP), released since 1995 by the NGO, is a subjective indicator, formed by the opinion of entrepreneurs and institutions. Even so, the level of perceived corruption in Brazil is consistent with the relationship observed with GDP per capita and the country's Human Development Index (HDI), values ​​based on strictly quantitative data. The cost of corruption can be understood as the amount of resources that are no longer applied in the country - whether in productive activities, health, education, technology, etc. - because it is diverted towards the payment of corrupt practices.

The index serves as a reference for institutions such as the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp). “Considering the less corrupt scenario, of R $ 51,4 billion or 1,38% of GDP, the deviation corresponds to 7,2% of the amount that Brazil invests in machinery, equipment, civil construction and infrastructure. And 26% of what you spend on education and 88% of what you invest in research and development ”, says José Ricardo Roriz Coelho, head director of Fiesp's Competitiveness and Technology Department.

Calculations made by another methodology, by the professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), estimate the total amount of “dubious use” in R $ 18 billion in 2011. “The funds involve both what can be suspected and can be simply incompetence, because the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) - from where the data are extracted - investigates whether the municipality's resource was well used; and it is sometimes misused not for bad faith, but for incompetence. It is worth remembering that in Brazil the incompetence is really great and there is no way to separate one thing from the other “, says Marcos Fernandes G. da Silva, professor and researcher at FGV.

Silva is the author of the books "Ethics and Economics", "Political Economy of Corruption in Brazil" and "Economic Formation of Brazil: A Contemporary Reinterpretation". In the books, he uses “several studies that have been updated on the same methodology”. “It is an economic engineering exercise where I try to calculate the opportunity cost of the money diverted, that is, what could be done in terms of investments in public policies, for example, with the resource that was initially diverted.”

Marcos Fernandes da Silva, professor at FGV, adds that when calculating the opportunity cost of “stolen” money, it is necessary to take into account the value that this money would have in the future. "If it were properly invested in education, in capital accumulation, it would generate returns for individuals and for society."