Probity Defense and Asset Recovery (BR0033)

to formulate actions with the aim of enhancing probity defense and asset recovery, thus making the Office of the Attorney General reference in asset and probity defense, especially in actions aiming at corruption combat, by the year 2016. The commitment, which shall be achieved through a combined effort of all units of the Office of the Attorney General, provides for the increase of procedures for preliminary investigation and information gathering, as well as of the number of attorneys assigned to deal exclusively with cases related to corruption combat and public assets recovery.

Commitment 1.1 - Probity defense and asset recovery

Commitment Text: To formulate actions with the aim of enhancing probity defense and asset recovery, thus making the Office of the Attorney General reference in asset and probity defense, especially in actions aiming at corruption combat, by the year 2016. The commitment, which shall be achieved through a combined effort of all units of the Office of the Attorney General, provides for the increase of procedures for preliminary investigation and information gathering, as well as of the number of attorneys assigned to deal exclusively with cases related to corruption combat and public assets recovery.

Responsible institution: Attorney General of the Union (AGU)

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 14 December 2014...............................................

Commitment aim

This commitment aimed to encourage the Attorney General of the Union (AGU) to carry out investigations proactively. The hope was the AGU would investigate the discrepancy of millions of Reais, recover assets, and coordinate the probes of highly important corruption cases. While these results would be considered significant, they were expected to have only a minor potential impact, since they focused on expanding current government practices.

Status

Midterm: Substantial

By the midterm, progress had been made on the majority of the committed actions. For example, the AGU was now using a new electronic system to investigate bank movements, had established working groups (especially in asset recovery), and had improved procedural instructions for more efficient asset recovery.^{[Note 1: Fabio Serapião, Carta Capital, 2014, http://goo.gl/lwlxix.]} However, the commitment was not fully complete, since the number of lawyers dedicated to anti-corruption and public asset recovery did not increase.

End of term: Substantial

The IRM researcher found no additional progress on this commitment since the midterm evaluation.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Did not change

Civic Participation: Did not change

Public accountability: Did not change

The AGU is a key agency in Brazil for promoting OGP principles, such as fighting corruption. However, the milestones included in the commitment reinforce the status quo. They refer mostly to intra-government advances in probity defense and asset recovery, and do not open the agency up to citizens. As such, no evidence suggests that the commitment directly contributed to any of the three core OGP values of access to information, civic participation, and public accountability.

Carried forward?

This commitment is not included in the next action plan. Nonetheless, the IRM researcher recommends establishing opportunities for civil society to work with the government in probity defense and asset recovery.