Strengthening Canada’s Fight Against Foreign Bribery

February 5, 2013 from  Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

February 5, 2013 Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today announced that the Harper government is taking further steps to combat corruption and bribery by tabling amendments to the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act in the Senate. He delivered the following remarks in Ottawa:

“Our government’s top priority is securing jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. In our international dealings, this takes many forms.

“It involves positioning Canada as a reliable supplier of the resources emerging markets need to grow.

“It involves pursuing an aggressive, pro-trade agenda.

“It involves creating the conditions for Canadian businesses to succeed.

“But our government also expects Canadian business to play by the rules.

“Canadian companies can compete with the best and win fairly.

“To signal our commitment and our expectation that other countries do the same, I am pleased to announce that our government is redoubling our fight against bribery and corruption.

“Today, reforms are being introduced in the Senate that will further deter and prevent Canadian companies from bribing foreign public officials. These amendments will help ensure that Canadian companies continue to act in good faith in the pursuit of freer markets and expanded global trade.

“Canada is a trading nation. Our economy and future prosperity depend upon expanding our trade ties with the world. This, we hope, is a good faith sign that Canada’s good name retains its currency.”

Backgrounder – The Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act

The Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA) makes it a criminal offence in Canada for persons or companies to bribe foreign public officials to obtain or retain an advantage in the course of international business. The act was created as a result of Canada’s obligations under the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, which Canada ratified in 1998. The CFPOA is also the implementing legislation for Canada’s anti-corruption obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption and Inter-American Convention against Corruption.

In 2008, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) established the International Anti-Corruption Unit, which is dedicated to raising awareness about and enforcing the CFPOA. To date, three companies have been convicted under the act, two cases are pending and there are 35 ongoing investigations under the CFPOA.

The proposed amendments to the act include the following:

• Nationality jurisdiction: This amendment will make it easier for Canada to prosecute Canadians or Canadian companies for bribery in other countries, insofar as it will allow the Government of Canada to exercise jurisdiction over all persons or companies that have Canadian nationality, regardless of where the alleged bribery has taken place.
• Eventual elimination of facilitation payments: The act currently states that payments made to expedite or secure the performance by a foreign public official of any act of a routine nature that is part of the foreign public official’s duties or functions do not constitute bribes. This amendment will eliminate the exception for facilitation payments and will come into effect at a later date to be set by Cabinet.
• Exclusive ability to lay charges: This amendment will provide exclusive authority to the RCMP to lay charges under the act.
• Clarifying the definition of “business”: This amendment removes the words “for profit” in the definition of business to ensure that the act applies to all business, regardless of whether profit is made.
• Increasing the maximum penalty: Under the act, the foreign bribery offence is currently punishable by a maximum of five years’ imprisonment and unlimited fines. This amendment will increase the maximum jail term to 14 years.

• Books and records offence: This amendment adds a new books and records of account offence into the act that is restricted in scope to the bribery of foreign public officials or hiding such bribery. This offence will now be punishable by a maximum of 14 years’ imprisonment and unlimited fines.

To date, there have been three convictions under the CFPOA:

• Griffiths Energy International Inc. – Griffiths Energy International Inc., based in Calgary, Alberta, pleaded guilty on January 22, 2013, to a charge under the CFPOA related to securing an oil and gas contract in Chad. Griffiths acknowledged having committed to paying $2 million in cash and millions in shares in exchange for exclusive access to resources in two regions. After providing the Chad government with a $40 million signing bonus, Griffiths was awarded the resources rights. Griffiths will pay a total penalty of $10.35 million.
• Niko Resources Ltd. – Niko Resources Ltd. is a publicly traded company based in Calgary, Alberta. On June 24, 2011, the company entered a guilty plea for one count of bribery. The company admitted that, through its subsidiary Niko Bangladesh, it provided the use of a vehicle (valued at $190,984) in May 2005 to AKM Mosharraf Hossain, then the Bangladeshi State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources, in order to influence the minister in his dealings with Niko Bangladesh. In June 2005, Niko Resources Ltd. paid travel and accommodation expenses for the same minister to travel from Bangladesh to Calgary to attend the GO EXPO oil and gas exposition, and paid approximately $5,000 for the minister to travel to New York and Chicago to visit his family.
• As a result of the conviction, Niko Resources Ltd. was fined $9.5 million and placed under a probation order, which puts the company under the court’s supervision for three years to ensure that audits are completed to examine the company’s compliance with the CFPOA. The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service has placed a hold on providing services to Niko during the period of court supervision.
• Hydro-Kleen Group Inc. – Hydro-Kleen Group Inc., based out of Red Deer, Alberta, entered a guilty plea on January 10, 2005, to one count of bribery and was ordered to pay a fine of $25,000. Along with its president and an employee, the company had been charged with two counts of bribing a U.S. immigration officer who worked at the Calgary International Airport. The charges against the director and the officer of the company were stayed. The U.S. immigration officer pleaded guilty in July 2002 to accepting secret commissions. He received a six-month sentence and was subsequently deported to the United States.

For more information, see the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act and Canada’s Fight against Foreign Bribery.

Source: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada sugestão de Gabriela Alves Guimarães

Picture source: Google Picture search

Ex-prefeitos do ES são presos por fraude em tributos

Fábio Grellet ESTADÃO

Políticos contrataram empresa sem licitação para cobrar tributos que retia 40% do pagamento de multas

Rio - Sete ex-prefeitos de municípios do Espírito Santo foram presos nesta terça-feira durante uma operação promovida pela Polícia Civil em parceria com o Tribunal de Contas do Estado e o Ministério Público Estadual. Acusado de transferir a uma empresa particular o poder de cobrar tributos municipais, o grupo teve a prisão temporária (por cinco dias) decretada pela Justiça capixaba. Outras 18 pessoas que supostamente participavam do esquema também foram presas de forma preventiva ou temporária, e existe ainda um foragido.

O grupo de sete ex- acusado de estelionato, usurpação de função pública, dispensa ou inexigibilidade de licitação, excesso de exação, peculato e advocacia administrativa. A área de atuação englobava pelo menos seis municípios capixabas: Anchieta, Aracruz, Guarapari, Jaguaré, Linhares e Marataízes. Foram presos dois ex-prefeitos de Anchieta (Edival Petri e Moacyr Assad), dois ex-prefeitos de Aracruz (Ademar Devens e Luiz Carlos Gonçalves), um ex-prefeito de Guarapari (Edson Magalhães), um de Linhares (Guerino Zanon) e um de Marataízes ( Ananias Vieira).

SAIBA MAIS

3 MIL INQUERITOS CONTRA PREFEITOS POR FRAUDES EM 2012

A investigação feita pelo Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Espírito Santo começou em julho passado. Em dezembro, na primeira etapa da operação, chamada Derrama, foram presas 11 pessoas acusadas de integrar o esquema. Nesta terça-feira foi promovida a segunda fase, com mais 25 prisões.

Todas as prefeituras contrataram sem licitação uma mesma empresa, a CMS Assessoria e Consultoria, para cobrar tributos municipais. A CMS passava a multar empresas de grande porte que deviam tributos. Cerca de 40% do dinheiro que recebia em nome das prefeituras era retido como pagamento pelos serviços prestados a cada administração.

A reportagem não conseguiu localizar representantes da CMS.

IBGC integra nova rede global de Institutos de Governança e de Conselheiros de Administração

O Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC), em parceria com oito importantes organizações de Conselheiros de Administração de todos os continentes, anuncia nesta segunda-feira (7) a formação da Rede Global de Institutos de Conselheiros de Administração - Global Network of Director Institutes (GNDI). Esta parceria internacional dá voz global aos conselheiros e agentes de governança e cria um novo fórum para compartilhar conhecimentos, ideias e práticas de liderança em conselhos.

A GNDI é uma parceria internacional entre nove importantes organizações para conselheiros da África do Sul, Austrália, Brasil, Canadá, Estados Unidos, Malásia, Nova Zelândia, Reino Unido e União Europeia.

Em dezembro, reunidos em Wellington, Nova Zelândia, os delegados da GNDI   elegeram  John Colvin, diretor-presidente do Australian Institute of Corporate Directors (AICD), como  presidente da GNDI, e Stan Magidson, diretor-presidente  do Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) do Canadá, como vice-presidente. Heloisa Bedicks, superintendente geral do IBGC foi eleita para integrar o Comitê Executivo.

A GNDI irá complementar o trabalho de suas organizações membro, promovendo uma estreita cooperação entre as organizações nacionais de conselheiros e governança. A Rede funcionará como um fórum global para compartilhar experiências, estudos de caso, práticas de liderança e  questões atuais ou emergentes de governança corporativa que impactam conselhos e demais agentes de governança.

"A GNDI reúne as mais importantes organizações que congregam conselheiros de administração e demais agentes de governança em todo o mundo. Além disso, vai discutir questões que impactem as práticas de governança, pretendendo ser um fórum importante de ‘advocacy’ que atravessará as fronteiras nacionais”, diz a Superintendente Geral do IBGC, Heloisa Bedicks.

Além disso, os membros da GNDI irão colaborar para:

• Antecipar e explorar as questões emergentes que têm impactos globais sobre as práticas de governança corporativa; 

• Desenvolver e promover práticas de liderança e programas de treinamento que melhorem a capacidade dos conselheiros, a fim de assegurar um desempenho sustentável  e de longo prazo das organizações para o benefício dos acionistas e outras partes interessadas;

• Educar os principais formadores de opinião sobre os benefícios e valores de liderança exemplar nos conselhos;

• Ampliar as vozes e perspectivas de conselheiros sobre questões relacionadas à liderança do conselho

Os institutos membros fundadores da GNDI incluem as seguintes organizações, que coletivamente representam mais de 100 mil Conselheiros em todo o mundo:

• Institute of Directors of South Africa (IoDSA), Africa do Sul

• Australian Institute of Corporate Directors (AICD), Austrália

• Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC), Brasil

• Institute of Corporate Directors in Canada (ICD), Canadá,

• National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD),  Estados Unidos.

• Malaysian Alliance of Corporate Directors (MACD),  Malásia

• Institute of Directors  in New Zealand (IoDNZ), Nova Zelândia

• Institute of Directors (IOD),  Reino Unido e

• European Confederation of Directors Associations (ecoDa), União Européia

Para mais informações sobre a Rede Global de Institutos de Conselheiros de Administração, acesse o site www.gndi.org.

Sobre o Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC)

Fundado em 27 de novembro de 1995, o Instituto Brasileiro de Governança Corporativa (IBGC) é a principal referência do Brasil para o desenvolvimento das melhores práticas em Governança Corporativa. 

Com mais de 1.500 associados, o IBGC promove palestras, fórum de debates acadêmicos, conferências, treinamentos e networking entre profissionais, além de produzir publicações e pesquisas. O instituto tem sede em São Paulo e atua regionalmente por meio de quatro Capítulos: Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro e Rio Grande do Sul. As atividades têm por objetivo disseminar o conceito de Governança e incentivar o melhor desempenho das organizações.

Em sintonia à sua atuação, o IBGC foi homenageado em premiação anual promovida pela Rede Internacional de Governança Corporativa (ICGN, em inglês), na categoria Excelência em Governança Corporativa. Atualmente, é também considerado Centro de Excelência em Governança Corporativa para a América Latina, Caribe e a África Lusófona, título conferido pelo Fórum Global de Governança Corporativa (GCGF, em inglês). Ainda no âmbito internacional, hospeda as atividades da Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) no Brasil, uma rede global que busca fomentar a adoção das boas práticas nas organizações. 

O instituto contribui, assim, para o desempenho sustentável e influencia os agentes da sociedade no sentido de mais transparência, justiça e responsabilidade.

Para mais informações, consulte o site www.ibgc.org.br .

Picture and text Source: Google search

Empresas admitem falha em sua governança corporativa

Brasil Econômico - Natália Flach | 07/01/2013 20:42:22

Mais de 80% de 54 grandes companhias brasileiras dizem estar longe do ideal; 59% não têm comitê de riscos, segundo pesquisa

As empresas brasileiras já são capazes de identificar os riscos que correm, mas ainda têm dificuldade para monitorá-los. Essa é a conclusão de uma pesquisa da Deloitte — divulgada ao Brasil Econômico com exclusividade — com 54 companhias, sendo que mais da metade com faturamento acima de R$ 1 bilhão. De acordo com a pesquisa, 72% dos executivos consultados apontaram o item “identificação de fatores de risco de fraude” como ótimo ou bom, mas sobre “definição clara dos indicadores de riscos” 61% assinalaram o tema como “irregular”, “insuficiente” ou que “nem conhecem”.

Quando o assunto é governança corporativa, 83% das empresas ouvidas avaliam que ainda não estão em um estágio ideal e 59% não possuem um comitê direcionado para o gerenciamento de riscos. “Falta capacitação profissional para saber exatamente o que gerir, controlar e monitorar”, diz Alex Borges, sócio da consultoria da Deloitte e especialista em gestão de risco.

Segundo o executivo, as empresas de capital aberto lideram esse movimento de profissionalização e criação de comitês. “Mas as companhias familiares estão indo pelo mesmo caminho. Isso porque muitas delas tiveram perdas inesperadas e estão agora atentas ao atendimento a regulamentações internacionais e nacionais.”

Falta maturidade
Borges explica que as avaliações ainda são muito baseadas em julgamentos. “Esta é a diferença entre a maturidade das companhias brasileiras e as internacionais”, diz. “Demora de três a seis meses para conseguir montar um processo capaz de fazer a identificação dos riscos e, para ter avaliação e monitoramento, leva dois ou três anos.”

Segundo o levantamento, os maiores objetivos com a implantação e fortalecimento do gerenciamento de riscos são: mensurar os riscos da empresa; gerar e preservar valor para os acionistas, estar integrado às estratégias da organização e aos procedimentos de governança corporativa. Ainda de acordo com a pesquisa, 72% dos executivos disseram que aumentou o interesse pelo desenvolvimento de atividades de gestão de riscos em relação a 2011. O principal motivo é a intenção em aprimorar e integrar diversos aspectos de gestão da empresa. Mas apenas 26% dos respondentes informaram que a área de gestão de riscos está muito integrada às demais áreas da empresa. Isso mostra que os funcionários da área ou da função precisam demonstrar os benefícios e o valor desse gerenciamento, agregado de forma a auxiliar e integrar as funções de gestão de riscos existentes nas empresas.

O levantamento aponta ainda que o principal patrocinador das iniciativas de gestão de riscos nas empresas é o presidente (com 23%), seguido do diretor de auditoria interna (19%). Para se ter ideia da importância do assunto no exterior, mais de 75% dos executivos entrevistados nos Estados Unidos responderam que a gestão de riscos mudou em suas empresas devido à volatilidade do mercado nos últimos três anos.

Housing plan faces corruption threat, warns state media

Saturday, 05 January, 2013, 9:00pm Agence France-Presse in Beijing

A high-profile effort by the Chinese government to build affordable houses for the millions priced-out of the country’s property market is marred by official corruption, state run media said on Saturday.

China in 2010 launched a massive “affordable housing” drive as part of an effort to defuse widespread discontent about the country’s house prices, which have skyrocketed over the last decade.

The programme, which aims to build 36 million affordable units by 2015, was championed by Li Keqiang, who assumed the ruling Communist Party’s second most powerful post in November and is set to succeed Wen Jiabao as premier in March.

China invested more than 820 billion yuan in the programme last year, official media said.

But government officials have “easily amassed dozens” of newly-built affordable apartments, and “have taken away housing units specifically intended for disadvantaged groups”, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

The outspoken editorial followed reports that a housing official has been placed under investigation after a local government confirmed online allegations that his family owned 29 apartments.

Of the apartments owned by the family of Zhai Zhengfeng, who previously worked as director of a housing bureau in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, “11 are said to fall into the affordable housing category”, Xinhua said.

The case, which provoked outrage on Chinese social networking websites, fanned “suspicion and murmurs about corruption in the distribution process” for affordable houses, Xinhua said.

Xinhua added that the need for measures to combat corruption in the programme was “increasingly urgent”, and called for greater transparency, including full disclosure of who is approved for affordable housing.

“Many Chinese have become extremely sensitive to skyrocketing housing prices and any mishandling of housing resources,” the editorial said.

China built more than five million affordable housing units this year, Xinhua reported previously, while the government has continued with restrictions on the market first announced in 2010 to slow house price rises.

Sistema unificado dos cartórios vai evitar lavagem de dinheiro

Edição do dia 02/01/2013 02/01/2013 21h18 - Atualizado em 02/01/2013 21h18 JN

A partir desta quarta-feira (2), os oito mil cartórios de notas do país são obrigados a incluir todas as escrituras e procurações em uma central de dados compartilhados pelas autoridades.

Começou a funcionar nesta quarta-feira (2), nos cartórios de todo o país, um sistema unificado que vai permitir troca de informações e assim evitar transações fraudulentas e lavagem de dinheiro.

Comprou um imóvel e fez a escritura? Agora, a polícia, o Ministério Público e a Justiça em todo Brasil vão ter acesso a essas informações pela internet. A partir desta quarta-feira (2), os oito mil cartórios de notas do país são obrigados a incluir todas as escrituras e procurações na Censec, uma central de dados compartilhados pelas autoridades.

O sistema já funcionava em São Paulo e foi estendido para os outros estados por determinação do Conselho Nacional de Justiça.

Os cartórios terão mais quatro anos para incluir os dados das escrituras e procurações antigas, feitas a partir de 2006. Um sistema como esse já existe em países como Espanha e Itália. No Brasil, ele faz parte da estratégia nacional de combate à corrupção e à lavagem de dinheiro.

Agora, vai ficar mais fácil detectar esses crimes. Imagine um fraudador que compra um imóvel em São Paulo para lavar dinheiro. Como a origem dos recursos é ilegal, ele faz a escritura no nome de um terceiro, um laranja. Em outro estado, Amazonas por exemplo, o laranja faz uma procuração que dá ao fraudador o direito de vender o imóvel. Antes do sistema, se procurasse os cartórios de São Paulo, a Justiça não saberia da procuração nem do fraudador. Agora, o juiz vai saber que ele participou do negócio. Basta uma pesquisa no computador com o nome, o CPF ou o RG do criminoso.

Ubiratan Guimarães, presidente do Conselho Colégio Notarial do Brasil explica: “A punição sempre vem depois de se fazer uma investigação bem feita. Quando não se pode investigar adequadamente a existência do crime, a punição fica mais difícil. Através da pesquisa dos atos praticados nos cartórios de notas a punição poderá ser muita mais efetiva”.

Para combater os crimes, o governo também vai instalar este ano mais doze laboratórios de tecnologia contra lavagem de dinheiro. Hoje, são 16. Com autorização da Justiça, funcionários cruzam ligações telefônicas e transferências bancárias de suspeitos. Desde 2008, já foram identificados R$ 17 bilhões de origem ilegal.

“Nossas estruturas do estado têm tido mais condições de identificar esses montantes de lavagem de dinheiro e também dessas práticas que atingem o erário público fazendo com que essas ações se tornem mais visíveis e o próprio sistema de justiça tenha mais possibilidade de condenações”, diz Paulo Abrão, secretário Nacional de Justiça.

Picture Source: Google Search.

Montreal’s corruption culture ‘needs to be wiped out,’ whistleblower says

LES PERREAUX MONTREAL — The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Dec. 27 2012, 8:20 PM EST

This article is part of Next, The Globe's five-day series examining the people, places, things and ideas that will shape 2013.

A man who helped blow the lid off of years of corruption in Quebec says one major chore remains in 2013 if Montrealers want their city to have a chance at a squeaky-clean slate.

Every single elected official who has been around Montreal city hall for more than a few years must be thrown out of office, according to André Cédilot, a long-time crime writer who first blew the whistle on corruption in the greater Montreal region in the early 1990s. He was also responsible for some of the more recent major scoops that led to the Charbonneau Commission and the establishment of an anti-corruption police unit.

In 2013, Montrealers will have their chance to throw the bums out. A civic election will take place in November, punctuating a year that will see both the Charbonneau Commission and the province’s anti-corruption squad hit full stride while the first kickback prosecutions go to trial. The revelations of 2013 may make 2012 look like a mere preface.

One after another, officials from the now-resigned mayor, Gérald Tremblay, on down have maintained they did not know what was going on among corrupt officials who fixed contracts, signed off on inflated bills and overlooked fraud in return for bribes. The systematic theft went on for years and cost taxpayers in Montreal and across the province hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mr. Cédilot doesn’t buy the denials. The former journalist made his living busting corruption and splaying it across the front page. Just before he retired, he co-authored a definitive book on the mob in Montreal, Mafia Inc., with his partner in crime coverage, André Noël, who retired to become an investigator with the Charbonneau Commission. Mr. Cédilot has known about the rot going back 25 years, and cannot believe any long-time councillor who still haunts city hall could have not noticed it.

“It’s become a culture that needs to be wiped out,” Mr. Cédilot said. “We need an entirely new generation of politicians if we’re really going to change anything. In Laval, too.”

Even since the departure of Mr. Tremblay and the resignation of the mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, Mr. Cédilot and other city watchers have noted a remarkable inability to change among civic leaders in and around Montreal.

In Laval, the interim administration is coaching city staff on how to answer questions from investigators in the wake of at least nine raids by police on City Hall and the mayor’s office and home. Montreal’s interim mayor, Michael Applebaum, whose election by city council was noteworthy because he is a rare anglophone in the office, has presided over a city hall that has descended in record time into factionalism, backbiting and halting efforts at transparency.

“Honestly, I’m completely gutted by what I’m seeing, after all we’ve been through,” Mr. Cédilot said. “This is grave corruption, the people are indignant, and they’re still blowing smoke in our eyes.”

For months now, Montrealers have batted around ideas for thwarting corruption, from bureaucratic suggestions such as independent oversight committees to watch municipal official to quixotic legal manoeuvres such as suing mobsters and other fraudsters to try to get the millions back.

Some have suggested abolishing the city’s party system. Rare in Canadian municipal politics, Montreal’s civic parties tend to come and go with mayoral candidates and have more to do with building expensive electoral machines and raising money than joining ideological forces.

Cathy Jackson, a 54-year-old Montreal nurse, said she has become quite cynical about it all and regrets that she and her fellow citizens have failed to get more forcefully involved in how their city is run. Montreal, like many municipalities, has habitually dismal voter turnout.

Even the resignation of the mayor leaves her little hope for change. “It’s a big cleanup we need, and what we get is more smoke and mirrors. I don’t really think anything is going to come out of any of this,” she said. “The leaders have to want to clean up the act here. We’ll see about that. We also need some people to go to jail.”

More than anything, the grassroots has to rise up in the same way the city’s student movement mobilized opposition to tuition hikes and the Charest government, she said. She wishes the student protests had expanded and persisted as a forceful call for change on corruption. “A lot of us are just too busy working and paying taxes,” she said.

Many people underestimate how difficult it will be to loosen the grip of the violent mobsters who are behind much of the exposed rot, Ms. Jackson said. “The reality in the whole mess is that these bad guys are really bad. They do threaten, they do hurt. They know exactly how to do it. They’re thugs with their own set of rules, they’re well entrenched, I’m not sure how a citizen can resist.”

More than anything, Montrealers seem to long for strong and new leadership. Early potential candidates bandied about in the city include the popular and populist federal Liberal Denis Coderre and Gilbert Rozon, the businessman who founded the Just for Laughs comedy festival.

It’s far from clear either man, the former an experienced political operator in the city’s backrooms, the latter an enthusiastic Montreal booster, would ruthlessly wield the heavy shovel required to clean out the mess at Montreal City Hall.

Benoit Gignac, a novelist who worked for former mayor Jean Doré and wrote a biography of his long-serving predecessor, Jean Drapeau, said there is no leader with iron will on the horizon.

“We require a mayor who can strike fear into the hearts of provincial politicians. I don’t see anyone who has the weight to do it, but any new blood will help,” Mr. Gignac said.

Even if there was, there’s no guarantee the new mayor will have his eye on the right priorities, he added.

Mr. Drapeau’s decades in office are a handy lesson. Mr. Drapeau was indeed an imposing character when he began his second term in 1960, but he spent much of his political capital building baubles and trying to make Montreal a player on the international stage. The 1976 Olympics and Expo 67 were on his watch. By the time he left in 1986, the city’s economy and infrastructure were crumbling away.

“By the time Mr. Drapeau’s strategy started falling apart in the 1980s, we had all these sewer lines rotting away beneath all those sparkling [Expo and Olympic] pavilions,” Mr. Gignac said.

If Montreal gets any respite from the corruption spotlight in 2013, it may be because anti-corruption crusaders have broadened their hunt from city hall to other cities and towns and other government spending. The province’s daycare system and the Hydro-Québec and Plan Nord economic development projects are all on the radar. “It’s everywhere in Quebec,” said Robert Lafrenière, head of the anti-corruption squad, in an interview. “We will be looking for new stratagems organized crime is using, including by moving out into other regions, and not just in construction.”

Shared misery makes for scant consolation. But when Mr. Gignac examines the coming years in Montreal, he’s far more optimistic than many city watchers. He said corruption is a cyclical problem of governance in a city where most citizens are getting on with work and taking advantage of the city’s vibrancy.

“For the average citizen, the city is not going so badly. And what problems there are have more to do with economy, infrastructure and transportation,” he said, pointing to major projects to overhaul a freeway and build a new major bridge and new hospitals that are nearly complete.

One of the two major hospital projects, the McGill University Health Centre, is under investigation by the province’s anti-corruption unit. But when complete, the city will still have a shiny new hospital, Mr. Gignac pointed out.

Infrastructure, Mr. Gignac insists, remains a far greater problem in Montreal than corruption. “A series of major public works will take us through 2020, and when we get there we will have an extraordinary city.”

Picture source: Montrealgazetta.com

Canadian O&G Cos Risk Greater Bribery Exposure with Global Investment

by  Karen Boman Rigzone Staff Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Canadian oil and gas companies face exposure to bribery and corruption as they increase investment in emerging markets that include Brazil, India, Russia and China (BRIC) at a time when they face more stringent enforcement of anti-bribery regulations at home and worldwide.

Canadian oil, gas and extractive companies are facing increased pressure to ensure their operations at home in Canada and abroad from two sources, Toby Duthie, partner and head of global consulting firm Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA) UK, told Rigzone in a recent interview.

One source is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which has been critical of Canadian companies for their efforts to stamp out bribery and corruption within their operations. In fact, the OECD gave Canada a "fail" grade in the OECD Phase three report published in March 2011.

The other source is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police – the equivalent of the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Federal Bureau of investigation in the United States – which is beginning to pursue bribery and corruption cases more aggressively than they have in the past since the OECD Phase three report was released.

The increase in investigations in Canada is being carried out under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA), which became law in 1999. CFPOA was created by Canada in response to the OECD Convention which Canada and other OECD member states signed in 1997 to fight bribery of foreign public officials. Enforcement of the law increased in 2007, after Canada signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also formed two special teams to focus on cases ofCanadian companies making illicit payments abroad, The Globe and Mail reported last month.

In 2011, Canadian oil and gas firm Niko Resources pled guilty to bribery charges under Canada's Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA). The company was fined $9.5 million for bribing a Bangladeshi government official. The investigation into Niko marked the first major prosecution under the CFPOA by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Global and Mail reported.

At the same time, Canadian oil and gas companies also must contend with the U.S.'s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or the UK's recently enacted Bribery Act. The Swiss and German governments are also stepping up their enforcement of anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. These efforts are being encouraged by the U.S. DOJ, said Duthie.

The Dodd-Frank Act passed earlier this year in the United States, which requires oil and gas and extractive industry companies to disclose all payments made to governments, also is part of the international initiative to increase transparency in financial dealings as a means of fighting corruption.

The increased investment by Canadian companies into BRIC countries and emerging markets in Southeast Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa, which are home to significant natural resources, also is driving Canadian companies to strengthen their compliance to mitigate the risk of business interruption and reputational damage arising from corruption events, said FRA COO Maggie Deacon in an Oct. 31 presentation in Vancouver, Canada, on anti-corruption for the mining sector.

New technology and oil prices are making projects economically viable in countries that have not traditionally been provinces for oil and gas operations. No oil industry existed in regions such as East Africa a decade ago, but the region's deepwater assets is drawing industry here, Duthie noted. But these opportunities in emerging markets, including BRIC countries, also open up companies to risk.

Fighting corruption in operations overseas can be cumbersome. And in some cases, such as with custom clearance agencies, companies are not bribing customs officials for profit but just as part of the everyday routine of doing business, Duthie said. But companies must address these issues in order to avoid exposure.

Canadian extractive companies that operate in BRIC countries are vulnerable to enforcement due to the higher corruption perception index in the markets in which they operate; exposure to inadvertent infringements of the law through joint venture partners, customs clearance through which bribery and corruption are rife, and use of agents in business dealings, according to the findings of a series of roundtable discussions in Canada on effective risk assessment due diligence and audits for mining companies operating in foreign jurisdictions.

The real cost of a bribery investigation is higher than actual penalties levied, including a drop in stock price and liability associated with class action suits, distraction from core business, loss of investor financing, resource costs and professional fees associated with responding to allegations, and negative publicity that results in a decrease in the company's brand value, according to the findings of recent roundtable discussions.

Additionally, agreements such as bilateral investment Treaties can become null and void as a result of bribery to secure contracts, leaving exposed companies with little recourse in the event that a concession is wrongfully taken away.

Oil majors and service companies, who often carry out projects through joint ventures, are increasingly worried they will be exposed to risk of prosecution due to vendors or joint venture parties, Duthie commented. FRA is seeing challenges for energy-related companies operating in Brazil and other BRIC countries, such as offshore drillers getting their drilling rigs through customers without paying bribes.

Russia offers a very challenging environment in terms of bribery and corruption not only in the public but the private sector, Duthie noted. But there is also a growing sense that if you want to pursue opportunities with multi-national companies, then a company needs to have an anti-bribery and anti-corruption program in place. Corruption also has been an issue in China, but protests by the middle class against corruption within the government have occurred in recent times.

However, Canadian companies are taking a more pro-active approach to addressing bribery issues, including an increased focus on managing third-party relationships through audits, Deacon said. Anti-bribery audits are used as part of a top-down and bottom-up approach in a balanced compliance program. Key business risk areas for corruption include the tendering process for project, vendors, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, taxes/customs, regulatory, financial controls and government support.

"From our hands-on experience we can reveal that companies who carry out an anti-bribery audit proactively, rather than in response to an inquiry from a regulatory authority, will win out because they can minimize their exposure to business costs and punitive fines," said Deacon in a statement.
When conducting an anti-bribery audit, companies should look at accounting areas, such as control over funds, payment procurement, accounting records, sales and marketing, cost accounting, receivables management, technology controls, and tendering and contracts, Deacon said.

"We have seen a clear trend that Canadian companies are waking up to the reality of their vulnerability when operating in emerging markets and that extractive sector companies are being proactive in the sense that they are taking action to minimize their exposure to risk now, rather than taking a 'wait and see' approach'," Deacon commented.

According to the OECD's March 2011 Phase three report on Canada's implementation and enforcement of the 1997 Convention – in which the OECD concluded that Canada's legislative and institutional framework remains problematic for enforcing anti-bribery laws -- Canadian mining companies had invested over $60 million in developing countries, including approximately $41 billion in Latin America and Mexico and nearly $15 billion in Africa. In 2008, 1,293 companies, or 75 percent of the world's exploration and mining companies, were headquartered in Canada.

However, Transparency International, in its September 2012 progress report, Exporting Corruption? Country Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, that Canada has moved up to the moderate enforcement category, a positive change from the organization's 2011 progress report where no countries moved to a higher category. But the organization reported that the overall level of enforcement remains inadequate, with only seven countries having attained Active Enforcement status. This number has not changed since 2009.

"Governments need to integrate anti-corruption actions into all aspects of decision making," according to Transparency International's website. "They must prioritize better rules on lobbying and political financial, make public spending and contracting more transparent, and make public bodies more accountable."

The group noted that corruption destroys lives and communities and undermines companies and institutions. "It generates popular anger that threatens to further destabilize societies and exacerbate violent conflicts," Transparency International noted.

In the United States, measures that require more transparency in money paid to foreign governments for projects have not been well received by some in the oil and gas industry. The American Petroleum Institute filed suit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the Dodd-Frank Act, Dow Jones Newswires reported in October. API argued that the measure would hurt the competitiveness of the oil and gas industry overseas.

In Duthie's views, however, legislation such as the Dodd-Frank Act in the United States that are driving transparency as a means of fighting corruption will be the new world order. While Duthie sympathizes with oil and gas companies' argument that too much transparency can hurt their business, the industry would be better off collaborating and lobbying for clarity, noting that it will become harder for those companies and countries who are resisting Dodd-Frank and the Extractive industries Transparency Initiative.

“Conspiracy Theories” vs. the Real World of Financial Crime: Bankers Face Prosecution For Conspiracy

By Danny Schechter Global Research, December 23, 2012

When most mainstream media outlets discuss conspiracy theories, it is usually to debunk the views of dissenting and critical thinkers who are routinely denounced as simplistic, paranoid or worse.

You have frequently seen the mantra questioning their motives and conclusions as if the idea of people or officials acting together covertly to advance their interests in illegal ways is something new in history.

Until recently, US press outlets characterized conspiracy arguments as rants that lacked any factual basis, engaged in guilt by association and stretched the facts.

The only conspiracy charges they tended to look at uncritically were criminal complaints against the Mafia under anti-racketeering statutes like the RICO statutes. Prosecutors loved these cases because normal concerns with  protecting  the rights of defendants didn’t apply when hearsay evidence was permitted.

But now, four years after the financial crisis, prosecutors have finally discovered what critics have been alleging repeatedly:  that big banks were  crooks, engaging, engaging among other illicit practices,  in secretive, illegal and conspiratorial schemes to rig baseline interest rates and manipulate credit markets,

It has now been admitted that traders at two major financial institutions were fixing LIBOR—the London Interbank Offered Rate, used to set the interest rates of $800 trillion worth of financial products, including credit cards and mortgages.

That figure again: $800 trillion!

The banks: Barclays and UBS. At first, regulators got them to agree to pay fines in so-called “settlements,” which are viewed by these institutions as a cost of doing business.

Barclays shelled out $450 million, but UBS went further paying a whopping $1.5 billion fine. They also admitted to fraud and bribery. (Usually banks settle such complaints with out any admission of responsibility).

The Brits took the money, but US prosecutors went further and also lodged criminal charges against two former UBS senior traders for the Libor manipulation. They are the first individuals to be charged in what Reuters called “the wide-ranging investigation that involves more than a dozen big banks.”

(Note: Only two were charged, and neither works for UBS anymore. The Naked Capitalism site scoffed: “”So far, the top echelon of UBS is unaffected by this epic scandal. Until we see executives suffer (and fines are insufficient if they remain wealthy), it’s a no-brainer that this type of behavior will continue, albeit in different businesses and new guises.”)

The practices were “absolutely rampant” between 2005 and 20 10, according to the Daily Beast which also noted:

“Both the Barclays and UBS settlements show a combination of systemic corruption—senior officials who did not seem to care about illegal activity going on—and a tight-knit, foulmouth fraternity among the traders themselves. While the Barclays boys talked about buying each other Bollinger, (ie. pricey champagne), the UBS fixers deployed nicknames, profanity, and a total disregard for the fact that their communications with each other might one day be made public. “

The Wall Street Journal couldn’t ignore the story and reported that regulators “alleged” a vast conspiracy, even after the banks admitted to some of what they had done.  Rupert Murdoch couldn’t resist his tabloid training by having two UBS stars quoted in large type on the front page:

•Said a Broker to a Trader: “”Mate your getting bloody good at this Libor game…think of me when yur on your yacht in Monaco won’t yu.”

•Said The Man Called “Trader A:” I need you to keep it as low as possible..if you do that…I’ll pay you, you know, “$50,000, $100,000 dollars.. whatever you want…I’m  a man of my word.”

Notice these violations of banking regulations are always presented as victimless crimes or crimes that only affect investors, never people who lose jobs or homes or how they impact on the economy worldwide,

Most of the coverage does not link all these financial crimes to the larger effect and impact they have had on the world.

Last June, Congresswoman Maxine Waters tried to raise these issues with Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank asking him to take action. He retreats into bland and passionless responses. It didn’t seem he was in much of a hurry to anything. (Watch her efforts on You Tube” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJX-0944ass&feature=player_embedded

Months later, other regulators in Britain and the US acted but also in a low-key way.

These prosecutions are highly selective and show a real unwillingness to crack down on bank crimes, even when they involve drug running.

Former NY State Governor Eliot Spitzer, and a former prosecutor who went after Wall Street commented on a refusal to go after the HSBC Bank on these charges, “”The decision to not prosecute in this instance belies everything that the government has ever done with regard to drug prosecutions everywhere.

“I mean, when you think about the way they behave toward ordinary people who get caught up in drug cases, where they seize all your property and they use absolutely the maximum sentences they can possibly avail themselves of, and in this case they catch a bank that launders billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels … for years on end, and they can’t find something to charge these people with?”

“If the law doesn’t apply equally to everybody, then you don’t really have a system of law.

It’s not just the banks or governments. The media seems to just be admitting that many banks are run like criminal enterprises.

I and other in the independent media have been making these points for years, as the website Zero Hedge noted:

•Fraud caused the Great Depression and the current financial crisis, and the economy will never recover until fraud is prosecuted

•Criminal fraud is the main business model adopted by the giant banks.

•Largely because they are out-of-control criminal enterprises, economy cannot recover unless the big banks are broken up.

•The Obama administration has made it official policy not to prosecute fraud. Indeed, the “watchdogs” in D.C. are so corrupt that they are as easily bribed as a policeman in a third world banana republic.

•Instead of prosecuting, the government throws money at them

•As Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz noted years ago:

“The system is set so that even if you’re caught, the penalty is just a small number relative to what you walk home with. The fine is just a cost of doing business. It’s like a parking fine. Sometimes you make a decision to park knowing that you might get a fine because going around the corner to the parking lot takes you too much time.”

Slowly, these concerns are working their way into the media but without much of the larger framework presented in a dire global economic report on just how deeply the world economy has been wounded.

The UN reported that it will take until 2017 before jobs come back to pre crisis levels, if they ever do, Global recession could easily deepen given the problems with the US, European and, now, the Chinese economies.

Much of this tracks back to the financial crimes that are just officially being acknowledged. It’s important to remember the warnings of Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter who, years ago,  referred to the criminal practices of big bankers, when he said: “Never have so few done so much to so many.”

Also note that none of this “back story” is ever referenced in the reporting on the so-called “fiscal cliff” negotiations. It is rarely mentioned how much of the money owed is in interest due banks. We keep hearing reports about our economic woes without any discussion of what is behind it.

News Dissector Danny Schechter directed two films on financial crimes, In Debt We Trust,” and Plunder.” He also wrote “The Crime of Our Time” about bank rip-offs. (Disinformation Books.) He blogs at Newsdissector.net.  He hosts a show on ProgressiveRadioNetwork.com (PRN.fm).Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org

Picture: Google search.

Compliance: Cultura que gera valor.

Por Fabio de Freitas

Neste sentido, Compliance é uma Cultura Corporativa de geração de valor e não um sujeito sem predicações.

 

Outro dia li numa rede social uma sugestão de que Compliance seria “o guarda costas da alta administração”. A definição não fora muito apropriada, tanto por se tratar de uma visão superficial do que vem a ser Compliance, quanto pela possibilidade de se criar uma subordinação – quase sempre real no mundo corporativo – das ações de Compliance à alta administração.

Ensejando o embargo da questão, coloquemos alguns pontos a fim de esclarecer possíveis equívocos de interpretação, comuns no mercado onde a figura de Compliance apresenta-se quase sempre sob um prisma distorcido, tanto de quem a promove quanto de quem depende de suas orientações.

Utilizando-se da sugestiva de que “o Compliance é o guarda costas da alta administração”, nota-se primeiramente que negar essa hipótese por erros de semântica parece coerente, por duas razões:

A primeira delas se dá, porque Compliance não é uma pessoa. Portanto não pode ser definido como um substantivo masculino e nem pode assumir papéis numa corporação como se fosse um sujeito sem predicações, ou pelo menos não deveria fazê-lo, embora saiba-se que em sociedades limitadas quase sempre prevalece a opinião do sócio majoritário. Para negação da hipótese, subjazer-se que em sociedades anônimas há certo grau de maturidade no que concerne a aceitação de padrões éticos com níveis de qualidade superiores.

Neste contexto, Compliance significa manter a corporação dentro dos padrões de conduta exigidos pelos órgãos reguladores e, parte deste princípio, garantir – inclusive para a alta administração – tais padrões de conformidade a fim de mitigar riscos de exposição, sanções e prejuízos, tanto para corporação, quanto para os agentes e a sociedade. Com isto, Compliance deve atender aos interesses da corporação dentro e fora de suas fronteiras de negócios e graus hierárquicos, a fim de garantir padrões de conformidade que satisfaçam exigências globais, bem como assumir e promover a missão de criar valor para a corporação e para sociedade como um todo.

Desta exigência é que Compliance não deve ser entendido como um suporte à alta administração; mas parte desta e a envolve com as mesmas obrigações que qualquer colaborador ou agente de negócios tem dentro e fora da companhia. Isto porque, como já dito, Compliance não significa somente seguir padrões estabelecidos pelo colegiado da empresa; mas garantir a conformidade com aqueles que, sob imposição de terceira ordem, podem inferir negativamente nos negócios e colocar a corporação em riscos, sejam eles de sanções, exposição indevida e prejuízos outros que possam de algum modo afetar o maior patrimônio que qualquer corporação séria preza: A confiança dos steakeholders.

A segunda razão vem do fato de que Compliance não deveria ser interpretado a partir dos jargões ouvidos por aí que denotam uma figura muitas vezes demasiadamente interessante; mas quase sempre com um aspecto vilão dentro da corporação, cuja ação principal é causar medo aos colaboradores.

Muito se escutam os dizeres “cuidado com os caras de compliance”, ou, como sugere o debate “guarda costa da alta administração” ou ainda, um departamento repressor das estratégias de negócios, gerador de custos e proibitivo, como se apresentam e são tachadas muitas unidades de Compliance de empresas renomadas.

Compliance, no entanto, nada mais é do que a Cultura Institucional que gera processos e ações que criem valores para a empresa, para seus agentes e para a sociedade a partir da aderência às normas e padrões de negócios pré-estabelecidos. Neste sentido, Compliance é toda ação que gera valor – presente e futuro – por meio da conformidade com padrões, normas, Leis, tratados e acordos entre agentes de interesses comuns. Isto é, cultura que zela pelo presente e busca garantir o futuro, evitando prejuízos de ordem maior, por meio da conformidade.

É esta especificidade de Compliance que solicita cada vez mais das corporações a transparência nos negócios e que exige que essas busquem sua gestão de forma transversal, garantindo o envolvimento de todos na percepção e correção de falhas que possam trazer danos financeiros e morais, não somente para empresa, mas para toda a sociedade. Neste sentindo, Compliance é uma Cultura Corporativa de geração de valor e não um sujeito sem predicações.

Picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oenvoyage/

Mais de 3 mil inquéritos da PF apuram desvio de verba pública em prefeituras

Fausto Macedo - O Estado de S.Paulo 22 de dezembro de 2012 | 19h 30

Investigações da Polícia Federal envolvem quase 500 prefeitos e ex-prefeitos sob suspeita

A Polícia Federal conduz 3.167 inquéritos sobre desvios de recursos e corrupção envolvendo prefeituras em todo o País. Estão sob investigação 484 prefeitos e ex-prefeitos por violação ao Decreto Lei 201/67, que define os ilícitos de responsabilidade de administradores municipais.

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A prefeitura de Amontada (CE) é investigada por suposto desvio de verba para saneamento básico

Os dados constam de levantamento realizado pela Diretoria de Investigação e Combate ao Crime Organizado (Dicor) – braço da PF que aloja setores estratégicos da instituição, inclusive o serviço de análise de dados de inteligência e a divisão de repressão a crimes financeiros.

O Maranhão é o Estado onde a PF mais trabalha, com um acervo de 644 inquéritos relativos a fraudes em gestões municipais. A Bahia está em segundo lugar, com 490 inquéritos, seguida de Ceará (296), Piauí (285), Pará (196) e Pernambuco (194).

"Certamente esses Estados, por serem mais carentes, com IDH (Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano) muito baixo, acabam recebendo mais recursos da União, verba vinculada, e aí, obviamente, nessas regiões pode ocorrer mais desvios", disse o delegado Oslain Campos Santana, chefe da Dicor. Em São Paulo, são 96 os inquéritos sobre gestores que atropelaram a lei; em Alagoas, 83; e no Rio de Janeiro, 60.

Além de prefeitos e ex-prefeitos, são investigados 182 servidores municipais, 87 secretários municipais e 63 funcionários que ocupam cargos de comissão.

Esses dados são relativos apenas à atuação da PF – centenas de outros prefeitos e ex-prefeitos são réus em demandas movidas pelo Ministério Público nos Estados, que detém competência para propor ações com base na Lei da Improbidade.

Conluio. Oslain Santana é um policial tarimbado. Já passou por setores sensíveis da corporação e lugares remotos do País desde que ingressou na PF, há 17 anos. Ao analisar as informações relativas aos malfeitos das prefeituras, ele faz uma ponderação. "Muitas vezes pode ser que não tenha crime de prefeito ou envolvimento do ordenador de despesa. Pode ter havido um conluio entre empresários que formam cartel para fraudar licitação."

Ele observa que, com tantos inquéritos, a polícia acaba contrariando interesses. "Não temos partido. A corrupção é própria do ser humano. As instituições são boas, os homens não são tão bons assim."

O mapeamento abrange ainda os inquéritos sobre crimes de violação à Lei 8.666/93 (licitações) e contra a administração pública – peculato, concussão (extorsão por servidor público), corrupção passiva e ativa, tráfico de influência e inserção de dados falsos nos programas de informação. Esses inquéritos estão à parte das investigações referentes exclusivamente às administrações municipais.

Tais ilícitos são praticados com recursos da União em todos os níveis da administração municipal, estadual e federal, e todos os Poderes, que somam 8,1 mil inquéritos, ou 10% do volume de investigações sob responsabilidade da PF.

Ex-deputados. Neste lote do levantamento estão na mira da PF 34 ex-deputados federais, que perderam o foro privilegiado perante o Supremo Tribunal Federal, uma vez que não exercem mais o mandato. Também são investigados nesse bloco 384 servidores públicos federais da administração direta e indireta e 1.633 agentes públicos municipais.

Por fraude à Lei de Licitações a PF mantém em curso 1.958 inquéritos. Peculato (quando o funcionário público desvia bens da administração) é alvo de 1.944 inquéritos, seguido da corrupção passiva (504), ativa (94) e concussão (145).

Em valores globais, todos os contratos sob apuração – os das prefeituras e os dos demais órgãos de governo – somam R$ 11,651 bilhões. "Não quer dizer que esse seja o montante desviado, é bom que fique claro. O valor se refere aos contratos que estão sob investigação", assinala Oslain.

Especificamente com relação às prefeituras, a PF usa como instrumento legal para enquadrar gestores à margem do decoro o Decreto Lei 201, que dispõe sobre a responsabilidade dos prefeitos e vereadores e prevê 23 situações que provocam danos ao erário – apropriação de bens ou rendas públicas, desvios em proveito próprio ou alheio, deixar de prestar contas anuais, ordenar ou efetuar despesas não autorizadas por leis, fraudes à licitação, e outros. A sanção vai de 2 anos a 12 anos de prisão.

"São elevadíssimos os recursos que a União repassa para os municípios, principalmente através de convênios nas áreas de educação e saúde", diz Oslain. O delegado lembra que a PF não atua isoladamente. Grande parcela dos inquéritos instaurados tem base em auditorias da Controladoria-Geral e do Tribunal de Contas da União.

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First Black Court Chief Confronts Corruption in Brazil

By Raymond Collit & Arnaldo Galvao - Dec 21, 2012 12:00 AM GMT-0200

Brazil judge Joaquim Barbosa during his inauguration as Brazil's first ever black head of the Supreme Court, in a historic ceremony attended by President Dilma Rousseff and other top leaders in Brasilia, on Nov. 22, 2012. Photograph: EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images

Joaquim Barbosa once pored over law tomes while working nights as a typesetter to pay for college. Now he is rewriting them -- and the history books as well -- as the first black chief justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court and the presiding judge in a landmark corruption case.

A worker displays a Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa Carnival mask before it is packed for shipment at the Mascaras Condal factory in Sao Goncalo, Brazil. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg

 

A worker airbrushes Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa Carnival masks at the Mascaras Condal factory in Sao Goncalo, Brazil. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg

Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa Carnival masks are laid out to dry at the Mascaras Condal factory in Sao Goncalo, Brazil. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg

Barbosa, 58, rocketed to celebrity for his role in a trial that convicted close aides of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who appointed him to the top court in 2003. In a country where few politicians are ever tried for corruption and virtually none go to jail, Barbosa led the way in arguing that Lula’s aides stole public money, used it to bribe lawmakers and should be punished with lengthy prison terms.

The son of a brick-layer and a cleaning lady, Barbosa overcame racial prejudices to galvanize sentiment for cleaner politics. While non-whites make up more than half of Brazil’s population, they hold only 8 percent of seats in Congress and earn half as much as whites, according to the statistics agency.

“The entire country is applauding Barbosa,” said Gil Castello Branco, head of Open Accounts, a Brasilia-based watchdog of public spending. “He’s shaking up the judiciary and giving hope to people who had thought nothing could be done about corrupt politicians.”

Ally of Business?

Barbosa, who holds a Ph.D. in law from the Universite Pantheon-Assas in Paris and speaks French, English and German, may score points with business as well.

His pledge to make Brazil’s judiciary more agile could help reduce costs for companies, which often wait years and retain multiple lawyers on tax, labor and other cases stuck in courts. Brazil ranked 116th among 185 nations in enforcing contracts and 143rd in resolving bankruptcies, according to the World Bank’s 2012 Doing Business report.

“What good are the sumptuous buildings and sophisticated communications systems if the judiciary fails in its essence?” Barbosa said at his inauguration for a two-year term as chief justice on Nov. 22. If Brazil doesn’t accelerate legal proceedings, he said, it will “create a scarecrow able to repel productive investment the economy requires so much.”

During the recently-concluded trial known as the so-called mensalao, or big monthly payment, for the bribes legislators received from Lula aides, Barbosa broke legal ground by accepting circumstantial evidence as proof of corruption and money laundering, said Mamede Said, professor of law at the University of Brasilia.

Barbosa’s siding with the prosecution during the nationally-televised trial struck a chord with Brazilians fed up with their graft-ridden politics. The world’s second-biggest emerging economy ranked 69th among 176 countries, behind Cuba and Saudi Arabia, in Berlin-based Transparency International’s 2012 study of corruption perceptions around the world. Graft costs Brazil 85 billion reais ($41 billion) a year, nearly double what the government spent on roads, ports and airports in 2011, according to the Sao Paulo Industry Federation.

‘Difficult Personality’

Alternately leaning on his desk or reclining in one of two chairs he keeps on the bench due to back problems, the former public prosecutor debated the 10 other justices and even traded insults with one who walked out of a session in protest.

“He has a difficult personality, some of the language that he used was not appropriate for a Supreme Court,” Said remarked in a telephone interview. “Still, his accusatory prosecutor’s approach was instrumental to the result of the trial.”

Under Brazil’s legal system, an investigating magistrate supervises criminal inquiries. Barbosa was assigned that role by draw in 2005, when the court opened the mensalao probe.

Carnival Masks

Now Barbosa has his sights set on Lula, who left office two years ago with an 80 percent approval rating. On Dec. 11, he urged prosecutors to investigate allegations against Lula after Marcos Valerio, the advertising executive convicted of being the main conduit in the mensalao, testified that the ex-president partook in the cash-for-votes scheme. Lula, who Barbosa has said he voted for, called the charge a “lie.”

Lula, through his foundation’s office in Sao Paulo, declined to comment on Barbosa when contacted by Bloomberg.

In a uniquely Brazilian measure of Barbosa’s overnight stardom, masks of the judge are among the most popular-selling costumes ahead of Carnival in February.

“I can’t stop selling them,” said Olga Valles, whose Rio de Janeiro-based costume maker Condal has so far sold 20,000 Barbosa masks -- 10 times her original estimate. If the current pace holds, sales may exceed the single-season record of 40,000 masks resembling al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden following the 2001 terrorist attacks, she said.

Barbosa for President?

Supporters, who have taken to calling him the “punisher,” have also launched a Barbosa-For-President movement. “We are Brazilians who believe Brazil will only find its path with a serious president,” their website reads.

Still Barbosa, who said he has been taken for a parking attendant when dining out in Rio de Janeiro, shows little interest in electoral politics.

“I think I’m a very unlikely person for this kind of job because of my frankness,” he said in a November interview with journalist Ellis Cose for Bloomberg View. “I’ve never dealt with political parties.”

Barbosa’s office did not respond to repeated requests to comment for this story.

Some politicians say they are concerned that Barbosa’s anti-corruption crusade may lead him to overstep his authority. Marco Maia, president of the lower house and a member of the ruling Workers’ Party, accused the court of provoking a clash with the legislature by stripping three lawmakers convicted in the mensalao trial of their seats. Such action is the exclusive prerogative of Congress and recalls abuses committed by Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, Maia argued.

Tax Dispute

Among cases affecting investors, Barbosa will preside over one that will determine whether Brazilian companies must pay taxes from the operations of their overseas affiliates. The case could set a precedent for several companies facing similar claims, including Vale SA (VALE3), the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, which is fighting a 30 billion reais tax bill.

Barbosa’s action in the dispute, urging justices in April to consider the global competitiveness of Brazilian companies when deciding the test case, signals he’s “sensitive” to the views of business, said Cassio Borges, head of the legal department at the National Confederation of Industry.

“He heard us out,” Borges said in a phone interview from Brasilia. “Barbosa is very independent.”

Oil Royalties

Barbosa may also preside over a dispute over royalties on oil pumped by Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) and other companies developing the biggest oil finds in the Americas in three decades. Congress this month took steps to overturn President Dilma Rousseff’s veto of a law that would redistribute royalties from fields now in production to all 26 states. The producing states, including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, have appealed to the high court on constitutional grounds.

The dispute over royalties has been holding back the auction of new exploration blocks, dragging down investment in a key industry. Brazil’s economy grew 0.6 percent in the third quarter, half the government-forecasted pace, as investment shrank for a fifth period. The benchmark Bovespa index has gained 8 percent this year, less than stocks in the U.S. as well Latin American markets including Mexico and Colombia.

Job as Janitor

Barbosa, whose first job with Brazil’s judiciary was as a janitor in a Brasilia court at age 16, grew up in Paracatu in Minas Gerais state, the oldest of eight children. While 70 percent of its population is black, the town that is home to descendants of runaway slaves has never had a black mayor.

Pictures of Barbosa are on display at town hall, and there are plans to erect a bust of him soon, said Ruth Brochado, who works at the city’s department of culture and used to walk home from elementary school with Barbosa.

“I’m very proud of how far he’s come, not because he is black but because he’s from our own, poor neighborhood,” she said.

Barbosa moved to Brasilia on his own at 16 and graduated from a public high school there. He studied law at the University of Brasilia, earning his degree in 1979, before working as a lawyer for a federal data agency and winning a post as a public prosecutor.

His role models include Thurgood Marshall, the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice, as well as 19th century Brazilian Emperor Pedro the Second, an opponent of slavery, Barbosa told Bloomberg View.

Even as a justice on the high court, Barbosa has remained outspoken on social issues. He favors abortion rights in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic society and backed affirmative action for minorities a decade before universities and government ministries adopted the policy. Brazil’s judiciary benefits the elites and mistreats poor and blacks, he has said.

“I think my legacy will be in what most people don’t like about me: my style -- the separation between judge and lawyers, judge and politics, the real independence of the judiciary from the executive, from the legislative, from money,” he told Bloomberg View. “I’m criticized in Brazil because of that. In the end, I hope to prevail.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Raymond Colitt in Brasilia newsroom atrcolitt@bloomberg.net; Arnaldo Galvao in Brasilia newsroom at agalvao1@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman atjgoodman19@bloomberg.net

Unidade mexicana do Wal-Mart usou suborno para abrir 19 lojas, diz jornal

Da Reuters

NOVA YORK, 18 Dez (Reuters) - A Walmex, afiliada mexicana do Wal-Mart, utilizou rotineiramente subornos para abrir lojas em regiões nobres, de acordo com uma investigação do New York Times publicada na segunda-feira, citando 19 casos em que a gigante do varejo realizou pagamentos a autoridades locais.

O jornal publicou em abril que o Wal-Mart havia encoberto uma investigação interna sobre pagamento de propinas na Walmex. No mês passado, a divisão anti-corrupção do México informou não ter encontrado irregularidades nas licenças obtidas pela companhia no país, mas que duas auditorias permaneciam em aberto.

Na reportagem de segunda-feira, o jornal detalha casos específicos em que a empresa teria pago propinas para crescer no país. Os supostos pagamentos teriam sido relacionados a licenças ambientais e leis de zoneamento que poderiam impedir a Walmex de abrir novas lojas.

Em comunicado divulgado na noite de segunda-feira, o porta-voz da companhia, David Tovar, disse que o Wal-Mart já estava analisando as denúncias publicadas pelo jornal, como parte de uma investigação iniciada há mais de um ano sobre possíveis violações da lei norte-americana de práticas de corrupção no exterior.

"Neste momento, a investigação ainda está em curso e nós não alcançamos as conclusões finais", disse Tovar, acrescentando que a companhia tem tomado medidas para melhorar seus programas de adequação a regras (compliance).

Em novembro, o Wal-Mart afirmou que ampliaria sua investigação interna sobre denúncias de subornos no Brasil, na China e na Índia. Na ocasião, o vice-presidente financeiro e outros funcionários na unidade indiana da varejista também foram suspensos como parte da investigação.

(Por Aruna Viswanatha, Jessica Wohl, Michael O'Boyle e Lauren Tara LaCapra)