Compliance and Investigations Newsletter no. 23

The Compliance and Investigations Newsletter aims to provide information on the main media news, trends, cases and legislation concerning compliance matters, in Brazil and abroad. This material is for informational purposes and should not be used for decision making. Specific legal advice can be provided by our lawyers.

Enjoy reading!

Compliance and Investigations Team

84 companies awarded “Empresa Pró-Ética” Seal on Business Integrity Day.

On November 30, 2023, the Brazilian Office of the Comptroller-General (“CGU”) held the event named “Business Integrity Day”, during which 84 companies were awarded the “Empresa Pró-Ética” Seal for the 2022-2023 cycle, a 26% increase compared to the previous edition, and the largest number of companies ever awarded.

“Empresa Pró-Ética” is a program managed by the CGU and Instituto Ethos, whose main goal is to encourage voluntary adoption of integrity measures by legal entities. According to CGU Minister Vinicius Marques de Carvalho, the “Empresa Pró-Ética” program, which has mainly concerned anticorruption matters, will include ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria in the next cycle. 

During the event, the “Pró-Ética Panel” was launched. The panel is a platform that enables access to data related to the 2022-2023 evaluations  of the “Empresa Pró-Ética” program.

In addition, the CGU launched “Pacto Brasil pela Integridade Empresarial”, an initiative that encourages companies operating in Brazil to voluntarily make a public commitment to business integrity by entering into an instrument and conducting a self-assessment of their integrity measures. Besides anticorruption matters, Pacto Brasil‘s integrity guidelines provide for the adoption of measures that concern the respect of human and labor rights, and the preservation of the environment.

For more information, access the CGU article, the Pacto Brasil page and the Pró-Ética Panel.

CGU and CADE enter into Cooperation Agreement

On November 10^th, 2023, the Brazilian Competition Authority (“CADE”) and CGU entered into a Cooperation Agreement, aiming to improve efficiency, integration, and coherence within their actions, respecting each authority’s jurisdiction.

The agreement has the purpose of:

• Establishing mechanisms for the collaboration and improvement of workflows concerning matters of common interest, such as corruption and cartel cases;
• Facilitating the sharing of information, databases, and expertise between CADE and CGU, particularly within the context of investigations; and
• Promoting the mutual training of their officials.

The agreement also provides for the definition of the activity field of each authority, in order to define the typologies related to their jurisdictions, and for the development of a methodology that contributes to the compatibility and coherence of the authorities’ decisions and settlement negotiations (e.g. leniency agreements, summary judgments).

 For more information, access the agreement in full.

CGU announces record numbers in the enforcement of the Brazilian Clean Company Act in 2023

In 2023, CGU has registered a record number of Administrative Liability Proceedings (“PARs”) initiated to hold companies accountable for violations of Federal Law No. 12,846/2013 (“Brazilian Clean Company Act”).

According to the authority, 63 PARs had been filed by November 2023, surpassing previous years.

In addition to PARs, CGU highlighted an increase in summary judgments in 2023, a negotiated settlement for these administrative proceedings. There have been 25 summary judgments, 17 more than in 2022, which confirms the trend of negotiated settlements for the enforcement of the Brazilian Clean Company Act. 

For more information, access the CGU article.

Brazilian Public Transparency Radar shows that the country has an average public transparency score of 58%

On November 13, 2023, the results of the Brazilian Public Transparency Radar were released.

The Transparency Radar assesses the transparency of 8,045 institutional websites of entities pertaining to the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative branches, at the municipal, state, district, and federal levels. The initiative is part of the Brazilian National Program of Public Transparency and aims to encourage greater transparency of information by assessing several criteria.

In 2023, Brazil’s average transparency index was 58%. Among the government entities, 4,116 institutional websites of the Executive branch were assessed, with an average transparency score of 59.7%. For the Legislative Branch, 3,777 institutions were assessed, and the average score was 55.6%. As for the Judiciary Branch, the average transparency score was 78.7%, based on 27 analyzed entities.

For more information, access the Brazilian Federal Accounting Court’s article and the Transparency Radar.