A “Let’s Pretend” Anti-corruption Law in Brazil

I have been reading a lot about the anti-corruption law and seeing the quantity of lies that are being published. Have any of you ever read this law?

There is no common understanding not even on the date that this law will come into force.

This law is from August 1, 2013, and in its last article it is clearly stated that: “This Law shall enter into force in 180 (one hundred eighty) days after its date of publication.”

This means that, considering as if all months have 30 days, the law would come into force on February 2, 2014. Thus, after this date:

“A legal person shall be liable regardless of the individual accountability of natural persons... by the practice of acts against public, domestic or foreign administration.”

"The chairpersons or directors will only be liable for the tort in the extent of their guilt."

I read an article in which companies were “anticipating” its adaptation to the Anti-corruption Law; since my educational background is as an auditor, I decided to stop and read it. There are some reports of companies that are providing anti-corruption trainings, ethical performance evaluation for senior executives, and recognition of positive behavior.

My question is: do I really have to train people to not be corrupt, evaluate if their performance is ethical and to recognize good behaviors? AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED, THIS IS A PREMISE!

This training speech gives an idea that the person is corrupt and he/she is going to be “trained” to do what is right, but naturally, he/she does what is wrong.

Evaluate if a performance is ethical is almost the same as to say that there is something of ‘unethical’ in the performance as a whole. Imagine the scene:

“- Mr. CFO, from the 5 distributors you hired, 1 of them is your partner, because of that your ethical performance is 80% satisfactory.”

If I, as a fraud examiner, had to analyze the fraud, I would like to see how the company maintains measures to prevent the frauds, how many inspections and conferences were held before the outflow or inflow of financial resources and how the system is parameterized to avoid gaps. Let’s take some actions that are really going to be effective enough to prevent frauds.

Do you think they are making that up or misinterpreting? Do you think these administrators may be arrested?

Leave a comment.

Take care,

Luis Vieira