Governance of Compensatory Funds in Corruption Cases: A Guide to Best Practices to Promote Reparations to Society
Authors: Michael Freitas Mohallem e Fabiano Angélico
Giving the financial resources derived from fines and penalties a social destination, as a way to repair damages, is a well-established practice in some areas - the environmental field, for instance. In Brazil, the most recent example is "Fundação Renova", which was created to compensate damages caused by the collapse of a tailings dam owned by the mining company Samarco.
In recent times, some experiences in the field of anticorruption initatives have started to get attention. These are the cases of bargains or fines whose compensatory funds are destined towards repairing the damages caused by crimes against the public administration or against the community, such as the emblematic Siemens Fund and the Alcatel Fund, in Brazil.
Transparency International, a non-profit organiztion that is a reference worldwide in the promotion of integrity and in the fight against corruption, has been promoting studies and debates with public and private entities about the possibilities for compensatory measures (such as fines and obligations to provide reparation) can be destined to enhace the Brazilian state and society's corruption-fighting capabilities. More than that, it has been advancing the debate on the current insufficiency and inedaquacy of current regulatory frameworks when it comes to the aplication of the obligations to repair diffuse damages, as well as the destination and the management of those resources - especially, but not only, in cases of corruption.
Within this context, this report aims to present subsidies pro the responsible management of these resources and for the wider debate on the enhancement of the regulation of these measures of compensation of social damages caused by corruption and other criminal practices.
