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.
Assessment and proposals for action
The federal government of Brazil has undertaken continuous reform over the past decade to enhance integrity and prevent corruption within its public administration. These reforms have focused on: i) increasing transparency and direct citizen oversight over public service delivery; ii) introducing a risk-based approach to internal control within public organisations; and iii) promoting high standards of conduct among federal public officials. These reforms have been shaped by earlier efforts to improve control over public expenditures and to modernise the public administration in the 1980s and 1990s respectively – as well as in response to a number of corruption cases that have captured public concern.