United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Brasilia, 24 August 2023 - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Brazil launched the Survey on Integrity and Compliance in the New Law on Bidding and Administrative Contracts (Law No. 14.133/2021), in a hybrid event, held in person at the Serzedello Corrêa Institute, at the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), in Brasilia, Brazil, and on the YouTube channels of UNODC, TCU and Office of the Comptroller General (CGU).

In addition to the Integrity and Compliance Survey, the Integrity Risk Matrix was also presented, which is a tool developed by the UNODC that can help different government bodies at national, state, and municipal level to identify corruption risks.

The event was held as part of the Global Action for Business Integrity project, which aims to prevent and combat corruption through innovative and sustainable solutions to improve governance and compliance standards. In Brazil, the project also encourages risk assessment, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) perspectives, as well as the development of compliance programmes aligned with the various risks present in public procurement and contracting, both in the private and public sectors.

Present at the opening session were the coordinator of the UNODC Rule of Law Unit, Nivio Nascimento; the CGU executive secretary, Vânia Lúcia Ribeiro Vieira; the TCU secretary of External Control of the Secretariat for Strategic Information and Innovation, Hamilton Caputo Delfino Silva; the Comptroller General of the state of Minas Gerais and President of the National Council of Internal Control (CONACI), Rodrigo Fontenelle; and the representative of the Association of Members of the Brazilian Courts of Accounts (ATRICON) and Councillor of the Federal District Court of Accounts, André Clemente.

According to Nivio Nascimento, "UNODC, as the guardian of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, works with solid partnerships with various government bodies and institutions, and this has been essential to boost corruption prevention and strengthen institutional integrity in Brazil. The launch of this survey is a crucial milestone and represents UNODC commitment to fighting corruption," he said.

The CGU executive secretary, Vânia Lúcia Ribeiro Vieira, congratulated UNODC Brazil on the initiative and said that "this survey broadens the scope of integrity beyond anti-corruption issues in public-private relations to respect for values and rights, such as human, environmental and social rights".

According to Hamilton Caputo Delfino Silva, TCU secretary of External Control for Strategic Information and Innovation, the research, and its mechanisms "may bring benefits to public procurement in general, especially high-risk contracts. It would be important to associate an integrity programme with these contracts," he recommended.

At the event's technical panel to present the main findings of the survey were the professor from Insper-SP and the director of Ibmec-SP, and the UNODC consultant in integrity and compliance in the New Bidding Law, André Castro Carvalho; the UNODC coordinator of the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Area, Eduardo Pazinato; the Controller General of the Municipality of São Paulo, Daniel Falcão; the secretary for Control and Transparency of Espírito Santo and vice-president of the National Council of Internal Control (CONACI), Edmar Camata; the TCU chief auditor of the Specialised Audit Unit for Contracts, Ítalo Pinheiro de Albuquerque Figueiredo; and the CGU Secretary for Private Integrity, Marcelo Pontes Vianna.

According to André Carvalho, who presented the research, the study aims to technically analyse the provisions of the Law, identifying its challenges and potential impacts. Carvalho also explained that, commonly in Brazil, the value of a bidding was used as a defining factor of the risk of contracting, but that the risk alone is not enough. "Based on this premise, we realised that it would be possible, within the new bidding Law, to include other factors before contracting," broadening the scope of risk analysis and its criteria.

The Technical Study on the Promotion of Integrity based on Risk according to the New Law on Bidding and Administrative Contracts (Law No. 14.133/2021) is available here.

The Booklet on Promoting Risk-Based Integrity under the New Law on Public Procurement and Administrative Contracts (Law 14.133/2021) can be accessed by clicking here.

Find out more about UNODC work on the issue here.