Tag: corruption

Participation of the Public Ministry in leniency agreements goes to the Chamber

The Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission (CCJ) approved, this Wednesday (4), in a supplementary shift, a proposal that foresees the participation of the Public Ministry, from the beginning, in leniency agreements signed by public agencies with companies responsible for practice of illegal acts in order to mitigate administrative sanctions. This type of agreement is provided for in the Anti-Corruption Law (12.846/2013).

Authored by Senator Ricardo Ferraço (PMDB-ES), the Senate Bill (PLS)105/2015, with changes in provisions of the Anticorruption Law, had already been accepted in a terminating decision by the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission (CCJ) on October 28. With the final approval on Wednesday, the project should be sent directly to the Chamber of Deputies. The text accepted by the commission is a substitute for the rapporteur, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP).

Omission

With the investigations of the Federal Police's Operation Car Wash, which found irregularities at Petrobras, Ferraço noted that the Anti-Corruption Law “sinned” by not providing for the participation of the Public Ministry in the construction of leniency agreements. For this reason, the bill determines that the Public Prosecutor's Office fully follow up on this procedure provided for in the Anti-Corruption Law, which, in its assessment, will give more legal certainty to the parties.

In the judicial sphere, the body may even sign leniency agreements in isolation or in conjunction with public law or the injured body. The project expands the effects of the agreements, now restricted to the administrative sphere, to include criminal action. Ferraço's expectation is that, thus, the companies involved will be safer to join.

- The proposal aims to end an omission of the law that creates legal uncertainty regarding the effects of the leniency agreement at the administrative level - he said.

Term

In addition to correcting the omission, the proposal extends the limitation period for those involved to join from five to 10 years. It also frees the company that signs the restrictive sanctions agreement on the right to participate in tenders and to sign contracts with the public administration.

Senator Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR), who participated in the understandings that resulted in the final text, considered the project relevant to the country's economy, as it gives more legal certainty to leniency agreements. Randolfe Rodrigues highlighted the need for the Public Ministry to be present in these agreements and highlighted Jucá's participation in the dialogue with the various stakeholders on the subject.

Source: The Senate Agency .

Anti-Corruption Law cannot trample constitutional public freedoms

Vehicle: Revista Consultor Jurídico
Author (s): Hamilton Dias de Souza

It is easy to see that the country's moment is delicate. Just read the newspapers or chat informally with anyone. Economic problems exist, as demonstrated by the devaluation of the real, the increase in unemployment, low productivity and the commented loss of investment grade in the country and in several national companies. However, one cannot confuse the effects to cause, as these problems result from more serious anomalies. It is not a matter of simple financial or monetary difficulties, but of serious legitimacy crisis state-owned, fruit of mistrust in relations between political and economic power, fueled by scandalous cases of corruption.

Source: Advocacia Dias de Souza

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ETCO supports 10 MPF measures against corruption

banner 10 measures
Bill toughens penalties and needs 1,5 million signatures to reach Congress with the force of popular initiative bill

 

Operation Lava Jato has shown that Brazil has made progress in fighting corruption. It has already spawned many investigations, revelations, allegations, convictions and, what is rare in so-called white-collar crimes, even large returns of money. But one of the main bodies responsible for this work, the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), which has a constitutional mission to investigate crimes against public property, believes that the progress is insufficient. According to the MPF, with the current laws and lawsuits, the country is in serious danger of, in a few years' time, seeing many of the corrupt and corrupting Lava Jato, and other crimes of the kind, get rid of the chain and other punishments.

To try to act also in these spheres, the agency carried out a study on the points that it considers flawed in Brazilian legislation, analyzed laws from other countries and put together a series of change projects around ten themes. In addition, it created a campaign to collect 1,5 million signatures and have these measures presented to the National Congress as a bill of popular initiative, which increases its legitimacy and pressure on parliamentarians to discuss changes proposals.

Nicolao Dino, Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, explains the objective of the work: “In addition to the investigations being carried out by the Federal Public Ministry, we believe that it is also possible to contribute to this scenario by presenting a set of suggestions with the aim of improving the functioning of the Improve our legislation and thereby also reduce the feeling of impunity that is present in our society ”.

In September, the ETCO-Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics became an official supporter of the Campaign.

To participate in the popular initiative Bill, you must fill out a form with your personal data, sign and deliver it to one of the MPF posts. More information can be obtained at campaign website. Below are the main proposed changes.

 

The 10 measures against corruption
1. Prevention of corruption, transparency and protection of the information source
  • It creates time limits for legal proceedings, of three years in the first instance and one year in the higher instance.
  • It obliges public agencies to invest in internal deviation prevention campaigns.
  • It increases protection for those who provide important information for the investigation.
2. Criminalization of the illicit enrichment of public agents
  • It allows condemning a civil servant who has an increase in wealth far in excess of his income and is unable to prove the lawful origin of the money even if the crime is not discovered.
3. Increased penalties and heinous crime for high-value corruption
  • Today, the minimum penalty is 2 years, half of which is stipulated for common theft. And those who receive a minimum sentence usually exchange the sentence for community service. For the project, the minimum penalty rises to 4 and the maximum penalty to 12 years. Therefore, whoever is convicted will serve at least half-open sentences.
  • Corruption involving values ​​above one hundred minimum wages is now considered a heinous crime, losing benefits that imply a reduction in sentence.
4. Efficiency of resources in criminal proceedings
  • It allows the convicted defendant to begin serving his sentence before the end of all appeals, when the judges understand that he is abusing the right to appeal.
  • It eliminates some types of resources and sets shorter deadlines for others.
5. Speed ​​in administrative misconduct actions
  • It simplifies and speeds up the process against public agents who commit an illegal act in the exercise of their function.
  • It allows the MPF to enter into a leniency agreement with defendants who confess their crimes.
6. Reform of the penal prescription system
  • It hinders artifices used to prolong the proceedings and lead to the prescription of the crime.
7. Adjustments to criminal nullities
  • It reduces the chances of a lawsuit or evidence being set aside because of errors in the investigation that did not affect the defendant's right of defense.
8. Accountability of political parties and criminalization of cash 2
  • It also allows the party, and not just its official, to be punished for the practice of keeping resources in parallel to the official account.
  • It turns cashier 2 into a crime, with sentences of 4 to 5 years in prison.
9. Pre-trial detention to ensure the return of embezzled money
  • It expands the circumstances in which the Justice can keep the accused in prison, in addition to situations involving risk of escape and destruction of evidence, to increase the chances of recovering embezzled money.
10. Recovery of profits deviated from crime
  • It allows to confiscate, from those convicted of corruption, the part of the property that cannot have its lawful origin proven, regardless of whether it is possible to prove the deviated value.

 

The advances and problems of the Anti-Corruption Law

Former STF minister, Nelson Jobim, at the closing lecture of the AIDE seminar
Former STF minister, Nelson Jobim, at the closing lecture of the AIDE seminar

Theme was discussed at a seminar of the International Academy
Direct and Economy, which was sponsored by ETCO

The new anti-corruption laws represented an advance for Brazil, but created legal confusion that will have to be resolved by the courts. In addition, they are insufficient to correct the serious problem of embezzlement of public money in the country.

These were two of the main conclusions of the Anti-Corruption Law - Limits and Consequences for Business seminar, promoted by the International Academy of Law and Economics (AIDE) on September 18, in São Paulo. The event was sponsored by ETCO-Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics.

The seminar brought together lectures by more than twenty experts from the legal, economic and academic circles, who addressed various aspects of the new laws. Including the prohibition, defined in a vote in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) on the same day of the seminar, on the contribution of companies to political campaigns. The subject was approached by ex-STF minister Nelson Jobim, who showed skepticism about his results. According to him, the problem is not the financing coming from companies or individuals, but the high cost of the campaigns, whose reduction requires deeper changes in the political system.

Delay and loss of credibility

Former Minister Gilson Dipp, of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ), was one of those who addressed the legal confusion that has settled in the Brazilian legal system in recent years, with the Anticorruption Law overlapping others that deal with related issues, such as the Administrative Improbity Act, the Criminal Organizations Act, the Money Laundering Act and the Penal Code. "We have a chaotic legal universe," he said. Because of this confusion, the ex-minister of the STJ foresees much delay in the final judgment of corruption cases. "This can lead to a loss of credibility for the law and the bodies responsible for applying them," he warned.

But Dipp believes that the Anti-Corruption Law has filled an important gap in the fight against corruption by instituting strict corporate liability. This provision means that companies involved in corruption can be condemned regardless of whether their owners or managers are aware of the fact. It is enough for the company, through any of its representatives, including external ones, to have participated in the crime.

Due to the importance of the topic, the responsibility of the legal entity deserved two panels of the seminar: one on the sanctions provided for in the administrative sphere and the other, in the judicial sphere, chaired respectively by jurists Bernardo Cabral and Ivette Senise Ferreira, vice president of OAB-SP. Lawyer and academic Hamilton Dias de Souza, a member of the ETCO Advisory Council, was one of the panelists who discussed the punishments at the judicial level.

The lawyer Ives Gandra Martins, president of honor of AIDE, regretted the absence, in the Anticorruption Law, of new instruments to curb the crime of concussion, practiced by public agents who demand bribes and other advantages to hire suppliers or release their payments. "If a company of 20 thousand, 30 thousand employees is placed against the wall - either 'enter the club' or will not win any competition -, does it have a choice?", He asked.

Capitalist remedy

Despite the legal problems, many speakers consider that, as a whole, the country is advancing in the fight against corruption, also taking into account the performance of the investigation and control bodies. Some believe, however, that it is necessary to adopt new mechanisms to prevent this type of crime.

In the master class that opened the seminar, jurist Modesto Carvalhosa spoke about the path taken by the United States, which reduced corruption in public works using a capitalist remedy: the so-called "performance bonds". It is a type of insurance that guarantees the term, quality and price of works contracted by the government. This system, according to him, makes the insurer control the work very strictly, starting with the quality of the project that gives rise to the bidding process.

Judge Fábio Prieto, president of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region, agreed. “You can't put a guy who earns R $ 10 to inspect a R $ 4 billion project,” he criticized. "To solve, you need to put someone the same size."

 

 

 

Triple list sent to Dilma Rousseff shows interest in fighting the billion dollar market in corruption in Brazil

A expressive vote of the current attorney general, Rodrigo Janot, in an election held by National Association of Public Prosecutors (ANPR) this Wednesday (5), shows that, at least within the category, the level of objections to the work to combat corruption is quite small.

It is undeniable that Janot's role in conducting part of the work of the Operation Lava Jet, which investigates a wide scheme of payment of bribes by contractors to executives of the Petrobras, helped the prosecutor to gain prominence and, consequently, approval by the public opinion. Therefore, it was not surprising that 81% of the voting voters chose it.

Source: Brasil Post website (06/08)

 

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Ten measures against corruption

Last week, the Federal Public Ministry presented ten measures to improve the prevention and fight against corruption and impunity. The proposals aim at Transparency, Prevention, Efficiency and Effectiveness.

The measures seek, among other results, to prevent the occurrence of corruption, to criminalize illicit enrichment, to increase penalties for corruption and to make hideous that of high values, to speed up the criminal process and the civil process of crimes and acts of improbity, to close loopholes in the law. where criminals escape (via reform of prescription and nullity systems), criminalize box two and electoral laundering, allow objective punishment of political parties for corruption in future conducts, make imprisonment feasible to prevent diverted money from disappearing, streamline money tracking diverted and, finally, to close loopholes in the law through which the diverted money escapes.

The proposals:

  1. Prevention of corruption, transparency and protection of the information source.
  2. Criminalization of the illicit enrichment of public agents
  3. Increased penalties and heinous crime for high-value corruption
  4. Increased efficiency and fairness of appeals in criminal proceedings
  5. Speed ​​in administrative misconduct actions
  6. Reform of the penal prescription system
  7. Adjustments to penal nullities
  8. Accountability of political parties and criminalization of cash 2.
  9. Pre-trial detention to ensure the return of embezzled money
  10. Recovery of profit from crime

Source: Anti-corruption website.

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Infographic shows the key points of an integrity program

ETCO - Brazilian Institute of Competitive Ethics prepared an infographic to support companies interested in developing integrity programs. The objective is mainly to help small and medium-sized companies, which tend to have less access to information on the topic.

In light and accessible language, the material provides guidance on aspects such as the identification of risks and the development of controls and standards of conduct. The material was carried out with technical consultancy from Machado Meyer Sendacz Opice Advogados.

The creation of integrity programs gained even more importance after the approval of Law 12.846, known as the Anti-Corruption Law, which establishes legal, administrative and civil responsibilities in cases of corruption practiced by private companies.

The subject has been a topic of interest to ETCO since before the law was passed two years ago. In 2012, for example, the institute organized its first seminar to discuss corporate corruption. Now, with legislation on the subject, ETCO fulfills its role of helping entrepreneurs and executives to implement good practices in their companies to guarantee business integrity.

The infographic is also available in PDF format.🇧🇷 See below for the electronic version of the material.