Promote integrity and prevent fraud and corruption in organizations – permanent attention and care

The General Corruption Prevention Regime, which was adopted at the end of 2021 (through Decree-Law no. 109-E/2021, of December 9), brought to organizations public and private, the mandatory adoption of measures to promote and reinforce integrity and prevent fraud and corruption.

We all know that the package of instruments associated with these measures essentially consists of:

– Codes of Conduct (defining the values ​​and ethical principles of organizations, and the corresponding conduct or behaviors expected of all their workers, including top managers);

– Corruption and Related Offenses Prevention Plans (documents for surveying and systematizing the risks of fraud and corruption associated with each of the organization’s functional activities ion, and the corresponding preventive measures that are predictably more effective);

– Reporting Channels (instruments to detect and punish, when proven, occurrences of fraud and corruption irregularities that persist in the organization);

– Training and Communication Programs (to reinforce the involvement of workers and the organization’s leaders in the culture of integrity, including knowledge and reflection on the meaning and usefulness of the Codes of Conduct, Corruption Risk Prevention Plans and Related Offenses;

– Internal Control System (structural plan or design and articulation of internal control policies, methods and instruments, including the Code of Conduct, the Risk Prevention Plan and the Reporting Channel ), It is;

– Responsible for Regulatory Compliance (with coordination and dynamization functions, and monitoring the implementation of the various instruments of the General Prevention Regime that of Corruption, with a view to ensuring compliance by all workers and managers, and also any need for updating, in a dynamic of continuous improvement).

It is true that, in general, with greater or lesser difficulties, entities, especially those with 50 or more workers (obligated entities), have gradually been adopting the aforementioned instruments. And they do so from the outset because, under the terms of the same diploma, fines are provided for non-compliance.

However, as you will understand, the fear of being punished should not be the only, nor the biggest, reason for adopting the indicated instruments. They are, by their nature, potentially suitable for, together and properly articulated, promoting and deepening the culture of integrity in an organization, with the consequent effects of reinforcing credibility and trust among citizens. partners, competitors, markets, and society in general.

The aforementioned instruments must, therefore, inspire confidence and generate responsibility among all those who perform functions (workers and managers) in the organization. Therefore, they must be drawn up with the involvement and contribution of everyone, at least senior managers and workers, and must contain realistic, credible and feasible measures.

These measures must, naturally, be checked and implemented on an ongoing basis, under penalty of not adequately measuring or guaranteeing their effectiveness. This is the great responsibility of the Person Responsible for Regulatory Compliance.

On the other hand, by the nature of things, we know that the central focus of an organization, and of all those who serve it, is the fulfillment of its function. After all, the true reason for its existence. For example, a Hospital is naturally focused on providing healthcare, a School will be focused on teaching its students, a plumbing company is focused on the service it provides to its customers. , and so on. Evil in the organization whose central focus becomes fraud and corruption.

This means, in other words, that the issues of integrity and the prevention of fraud and corruption, being associated with all its procedures, are not its central focus, nor do they, in most cases, a strong direct relationship with the activities they carry out. These are not questions of its functional nature, if one can say so.

And it will be above all for this reason that, under the terms of the same legal diploma, reports on the implementation of the instruments of the General Prevention Regime must be carried out and presented cyclically (in April and October of each year). that of Corruption with an indication of the necessary adjustments and corrections, in the aforementioned dynamic of continuous improvement.

And it will also be within this framework, of reinforcing permanent attention to compliance with the aforementioned instruments and precautions, that the recent MENAC recommendation (Recommendation 7 /2024, of May 28) relating to the monthly presentation of information of the same nature.