Companies that enter into contracts with the federal government to carry out works and services must present integrity plans to prevent and combat cases of corruption, as well as ensure respect for human rights, labor legislation and environmental issues. The rules are contained in a decree signed this Monday (9) by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on the date on which the International Day against Corruption is celebrated, established by the United Nations (UN) in 2003.
The decree regulates a provision of the new Bidding Law (Law 14,333), in force since 2021, which requires the adoption of integrity programs in so-called large bids, currently defined in contracts starting at R$239 million. The deadline for submitting this plan compliance is up to six months after hiring. Supervision of the program will be the responsibility of the Federal Comptroller General (CGU).
“Now, as of today’s decree, the General Comptroller of the Union is responsible for evaluating these programs, identifying any needs for improvement and, as a result, approving the participation of companies in these public contracts”, explained the CGU minister, Vinícius de Carvalho. The rules will only apply to new contracts, but the CGU hopes that, in current contracts, companies will develop this type of plan.
“As there are already contracts in force, it would be very interesting for companies to adhere to the integrity pact. We created this integrity pact so that companies can acquire the tools that the CGU uses to analyze the integrity programs complianceof integrity, and can structure their programs with this instrument, which is what the CGU uses to evaluate them”, noted the minister. Furthermore, in the bidding process itself, the legislation itself establishes the existence of an integrity program as tiebreaker criterion between two proposals.
The integrity program, according to the minister, must make it very clear what behaviors are expected and prohibited from company employees, especially with regard to the financial execution of the contract. Furthermore, according to him, there must be a complete structure so that any complaints can be properly investigated.
“The program must have governance, it must have an internal structure that works within the company, normally involving the participation of senior management. You can have a board or a vice-presidency of integrity and compliance. It must have a structure for monitoring people’s behavior and a structure for capturing complaints that can be made internally, also by company employees or people outside the company about the company’s own behavior. And, finally, a well-honed consequence management system, in which the detected behavior generates some type of consequence in terms of punishment or adequacy of that conduct, as necessary”, he highlighted.
The full decree must be published in the next edition of the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU).
