On 11 June, the Federal Government launched a program to protect the tenders for work in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games against the possibility of fraud.
The plan, known as Jogando Limpo (Playing It Clean), includes a series of guidelines and nuggets of advice so that the Government institutions, and also the tax authorities, as also the common citizens themselves, may identify and denounce attempts at fraud against the tenders.
The program, which was launched today by the Ministry for Justice and the Ministry for Sport, also plan the establishment of a group especially to keep an eye on tenders, to armor them against the threat of fraud and also to avoid delays in construction work.
This initiative, also boosted by the General Financial Controller of the Union (Controladoria Geral da União), also plans a campaign to make the people aware of the need to pay attention to possible fraud and to always denounce the cases.
The program emphasizes measures against cartels and possible agreements between competing companies to set prices above market levels, in an attempt to raise the value of the contracts with the state.
"Nothing can be worse than someone taking advantage of these two great opportunities to commit crimes. This is a world phenomenon”, said the Minister for Justice, Luiz Paulo Barreto, during the ceremony to launch the program.
“The businesspeople could be entering with an agreement on prices, in order to compete in these tenders. This is something that needs to be tackled. We need to promote fair play also in our tenders”, Mr. Barreto added.
“Fair play is something we would expect from a country intending to host events of this size”, he added.
For the Minister, if South Africa opened its World Cup today, Brazil has also started to organize theirs, with the programming of the construction works that shall be necessary for the event and also the definition of investments that shall be made in infrastructure works, services and sporting venues.
Mr. Barreto said that, between 2007 and 2010, in Brazil there was a total of 265 search and seizure warrants to tackle the crime of cartel formation.
As he says, in the same period over 100 people were preventively arrested for the same crime, and right now an additional 251 people are being investigated.
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14/02 | News
