Minister Bruno Dantas, president of the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and Chair of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), attended the Annual International Conference on Integrity (CAII) 2023 on Monday, November 27. The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Peru hosts the meeting, which took place in Lima, Peru, until Tuesday, November 28. The goal was to discuss trends and good practices regarding anti-corruption and integrity. This year, the main topic was "Stop Corruption: Collaborative Research Strategies and Sanctions System". 

The President of Peru, Dina Boluarte, the Comptroller General of SAI Peru, Nelson Shack Yalta, the Comptroller General of Paraguay and chair of the Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS), Camilo Benitez, representatives of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) of numerous nations and international organisms attended the first day of the conference. The Vice-President of TCU, Minister Vital do Rêgo, and Ministers Augusto Nardes and Jorge Oliveira also took part in the meeting.  

President Bruno Dantas presented the keynote address "The Efforts of Science against Corruption”. The minister emphasized that corruption discourages investments and innovation, increases inequality and poverty, weakens citizens' trust in governments and generates political instability.  

"Corruption is a threat to the progress and development of countries all over the world. Therefore, it is our constitutional and moral obligation to contribute to the fight against corruption and the pursuit of the integrity of governments. Corruption stands as an obstacle to the economic, social, and political development of all countries," he stated.  

Dantas recalled that the governments' integrity is a determining factor when it comes to the effectiveness of public policies and to the provision of adequate services to society. He said that "the use of science and information technology has been crucial, becoming a powerful tool to curb corruption and promote transparency." 

The Brazilian experience

Dantas presented LabContas when sharing TCU’s initiatives that contribute to the fight against corruption. The data integration platform allows the implementation of control actions through collaborative efforts focused on data analysis. 

"LabContas brings together 80 databases from the entire Brazilian public administration. It has a catalogue information, tools, and solutions to data processing and analysis, available to use in audits and inspections by the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts," emphasized Dantas. 

Dantas also exemplified that the importance of data cross-referencing and analysis were fundamental during the COVID-19 pandemic."Many possibilities of fraud were discovered during the distribution of emergency aid to vulnerable families. The Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts played a decisive role in  insuring the integrity of this social program and in demanding the government to implement fraud prevention measures. This action made it possible to exclude  thousands of ineligible records from the list of beneficiaries," he explained. 

The Minister also detailed the ALICE tool, which assists auditors in public procurement and contracts audit, including through  predictive analysis, and the continuous payroll audit that TCU conducts in public entities. "The use of information technology and artificial intelligence has allowed  our audits to be much more effective, enabling us to verify where the irregularities are located", he observed.  

The fight against corruption in the INTOSAI

The president also discussed INTOSAI's initiatives in the context of combating corruption. He mentioned the publishing of the guide "Enhancing collaboration between Supreme Audit Institutions and Anti-corruption Bodies in preventing and fighting corruption", during the International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI), which took place in Rio de Janeiro in November of 2022. The document was developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with support of SAI UAE and in collaboration with INTOSAI. 

"The guide, which was elaborated by 150 specialists from 50 different countries, recognizes the significant role that the Supreme Audit Institutions can carry out in the fight against corruption, encourages the collaboration with anti-corruption entities and provides orientation on how to build and to improve working relations between both entities, both at national and regional and global levels", explained the president.        

Dantas also mentioned that during the same meeting, the INTOSAI Working Group on the Fight against Corruption and Money Laundering approved the documents "Guidelines on the recovery of stolen assets" and "Guidelines for auditing corruption prevention in public procurements." 

In the afternoon, president Bruno Dantas attended the debate "Governmental and political control. The joint work of the Supreme Audit Institutions and Parliaments", alongside Paraguay's Comptroller General and OLACEFS' President, Camilo Benítez, SAI Mexico president and Executive Secretary of OLACEFS, David Colmenares, President of the Latin American and the Caribbean Parliament (Parlatino), the Argentinian Senator Silvia Giacoppo. 

Visit the website of the Annual International Conference on Integrity 2023 to learn more.