Launch of Transparency Portal. |
This initiative, also boosted by the General Financial Controller of the Union (Controladoria Geral da UniĆ£o), 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," Barreto added. "Fair play is something we would expect from a country intending to host events of this size," he added. Barreto also said that, between 2007 and 2010, there were a total of 265 search and seizure warrants issued in Brazil to tackle the crime of cartel formation. In the same period over 100 people were preventively arrested for the same crime, and currently an additional 251 people are being investigated.