OECD Integrity Review of Brazil
Managing Risks for a Cleaner Public Service
Brazil’s agenda to enhance integrity and prevent corruption is particularly critical in order to address a number of challenges facing the country’s public administration. The challenges include managing risks associated with innovation in public service delivery, achieving value for money and minimising waste in government operations and meeting the expectations of citizens regarding the conduct of public organisations.
This report is the first integrity review of a G20 country undertaken by the OECD. It assesses the implementation and coherence of instruments, processes and structures to create a culture of integrity and to manage risks affecting the operations and performance of public organisations.
The report analyses four main areas of focus : (i) promoting transparency and citizen engagement; (ii) implementing risk-based systems of internal control; (iii) embedding high standards of conduct; and (iv) enhancing integrity in public procurement.
It is complemented by three case studies to highlight issues of integrity management at the level of individual public functions, organisations and programmes: the federal tax administration, the Family Grant (a conditional cash transfer) Programme; and the National STD/AIDS Programme.
Embedding high standards of conduct
Standards of conduct are recognised as essential for guiding the behaviour of public officials in line with the public purpose of the organisation in which they work. This chapter examines actions by the federal government largely since the creation of the Public Ethics Commission in 1999 to define and effectively guide standards of conduct among federal public officials. The proposals for action focus on i) tailoring guidance and training activities to the risks associated with officials’ tasks and level of management; ii) linking standards of conduct to operational risks identified through internal control and information received through the ombudsman system; and iii) introducing a standardised evaluation framework to monitor and assess actual standards of conduct within individual public organisations.