INTEGRITY AS THE CORNERSTONE OF SUSTAINABILITY
| Jurisdiction | Derecho Internacional |
INTEGRITY AS THE CORNERSTONE OF SUSTAINABILITY
Federal District and Territories
Prosecutors Office-Brazilia
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LUCIANA ASPER Y VALDES is a public prosecutor of the Federal District Public Prosecution Office (MPDFT) and since 2018 has been conducting the Especial Comission Against Corruption of the National Council of Public Prosecution of Brazil. She coordinated in the last couple of years the campaign of "Everyone together against Corruption" within the Brazilian National Strategy To Tackle Corruption and Money Laundering, also known as ENCCLA gathering over 40 different agencies and public bodies in a preventive initiative to tackle corruption; She runs the program "Citizen against Corruption" and coordinated the campaign of the "10 Measures against corruption in the MPDFT. Is an invited expert in the "Culture of Lawfullness" program of UNESCO. Has graduate degrees in Law and Economics and a post graduate degrees in Public Law and Civil Procedure.
I. Introduction
Preventing systemic corruption is a challenge, but is a necessary step for the improvement of democracy. The following paper outlines recent anticorruption enforcement efforts in Brazil, the cultural shift that is required to combat bribery, and a discussion on the necessity of integrity as the underpinning to legal reformation efforts.
II. Recent Enforcement Efforts in Brazil
Brazil's continuous endeavor to fight pervasive, endemic corruption has resulted in some substantive achievements worth celebrating. The awareness of the need for practical and effective anti-corruption mechanisms that focus on integrity and accountability as well as legal reforms to sustain it is increasing at a remarkable speed. Recent events have given strength to this purpose. These events include the rejection of the PEC 372 by the Brazilian Parliament, which was an attempt to curb the prosecutor's investigative power, the approval of the state's evidence3 practice, and the effective implementation of the Operação Lava Jato ("Operation Car Wash") task force, which required national institutions engaged in anti-corruption efforts to work as a coordinated team.4
The Lava Jato case has become the turning point in the fight against corruption and bribery in Latin America, which saw success due to the exceptional efforts of Judge Sergio Moro, and the involvement of prosecutors and investigators with previous experience in complex prosecutions that involved corruption, bribery, money laundering and other forms of organized crime.
Since its first police operation, which took place in Curitiba and other Brazilian cities in March of 2014, citizens have pressed for a definite change in good governance, probity, accountability and justice, and are no longer willing to tolerate attempts to bring back the old impunity system. The Lava Jato has become a milestone of hope for change. Brazilians and Latin Americans alike are now striving to fracture the historic, endemic and systemic corruption that has not only diverted and pilfered public resources, such
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as public monies, educational and health services, social and economic development, jobs, infrastructure, basic sanitation, food, homes, and transportation, but also impeded the tenants of justice, fairness and human dignity. Underlying all of this is the principle of integrity, which must be made the cornerstone of sustainable development.
Until February of 2019, the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba5 and Rio de Janeiro,6 despite the numerous battles with respect to the use of powers vested in them by the Constitution, achieved impressive results including 2.476 probes, 134 accusations, 716 accused persons, 58 rulings, 191 convictions of over 2.827 years of imprisonment, 218 defendant collaboration agreements, 13 leniency agreements and 548 mutual legal international assistance pleas.
The pervasive impunity, self-enrichment, and collusion that has prevailed at the top echelons of government and business sectors in Brazilian history frequently governed the pattern of large government contracts. More than just simple frustration in the law enforcement against corruption, this historic standard ended up deflating and invalidating any type of control and prevention of corruption as well.
The Justice System has been regarded as the last safeguard by the people. When all other measures fail, there is a legitimate expectation that the Justice System will preserve the rights of its citizens and ensure that justice is ultimately done when fulfilling its vocation. Unsurprisingly, when the Justice System is seen to be protecting injustice and operating as a shield of impunity for corrupt practices instead of fulfilling its mandate as a reliable enforcement mechanism for social and fundamental civil rights-especially in countries lacking fruition of those rights- the citizens lose faith and respect in public control and enforcement agencies. This cultural phenomenon poses a challenge to be deconstructed, as it ultimately leaves the door open for the normalization of abuse and breach of pre-established rules and laws. Further, Brazil's historic impunity has standardized all forms of breaches in both public-private affairs as well as private relationships. Because the reliability of the Justice System has been fundamentally undermined, instead of looking to legal recourse, both administrative and judicial, as the first course of action when dealing with their activities and obligations, people begin to seek alternative measures, including accepting bribe and fraud.
Unfortunately, this has led many Brazilian citizens to become part of a vicious cycle of slavery to a corrupted system and thereby self-sabotaging the development of their nation. That is why OECD affirms that "corruption in the public sector hampers the efficiency of public services, undermines confidence in public institutions and increases
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the cost of public transactions. Integrity is essential for building strong institutions resistant to corruption."7
III. Recent Legal Developments in Brazil
Awareness of the foregoing issues has increased recently, and Brazilian citizens have started to demand a change. The massive cost of corruption to all areas of society and the impact it has on civil and social rights can no longer be hidden. The Mensalão scandal8 has triggered this change, and reform efforts have been sustained by the advances in the Lava Jato case. In 2015, to support this breakthrough in the fight against corruption, a grassroots movement9 endorses the "10 Measures Against Corruption", which where twenty anti-corruption draft-bills focused on ten topics on prevention, control and strengthened enforcement. This instrument was constructed under the predictions of international treaties already signed by Brazil, and it was presented to Congress by civil society movements in March of 2016, with over two million citizens' signatures. The process to collect these signatures continued for a record of only eight months and brought together public and private prosecutors, law firms, businesses, universities and other social sectors, who collectively participated in lectures that clarified the purpose of the draft-bills. Unfortunately, only eight months later, on November 29th the measures that would improve the fight against corruption suffered a retaliation by congressman who had been highly involved in the Lava Jato investigations, and the draft-bills were ultimately rejected.
However, due to this intense demand for new laws and for the Justice System to adequately respond to recent corruption scandals, members of the Supreme Court, in a historic ruling, reversed their prior understading, thereby allowing the enforcement of convictions...
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