Panama City: Transparency International has announces that the Carwash Task Force
(Força-Tarefa Lava Jato) of Brazil has been selected as the winner of the 2016
Anti-Corruption Award. The Anti-Corruption Award honours remarkable individuals
and organisations worldwide, journalists, prosecutors, government officials,
and civil society leaders who expose and fight corruption.
The Carwash Operation
(Operação Lava Jato) began as a local money laundering investigation and has
grown into the largest investigation to date uncovering cases of state capture
and corruption in Brazil.
According to sources, the state prosecutors
from the Carwash Task Force have been on the front line of investigations in
Brazil since April 2014. Dealing with one of the world’s biggest corruption
scandals, the Petrobras case, they have investigated, prosecuted, and obtained
heavy sentences against some of the most powerful members of Brazil’s economic
and political elites. To date, there have been more than 240 criminal charges
and 118 convictions totalling 1,256 years of jail time, including high-level
politicians and businesspeople previously considered untouchable.
With their national campaign “10 Measures
against Corruption”, they pushed for legislative reforms to enhance the
capacity of public administrators to prevent and detect corruption, and law
enforcers to investigate, prosecute and sanction it.
On 30 November, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies
voted for a weakened version of the law. The lawmakers took out essential
features on whistleblower protection and illegal campaign financing and
introduced an amendment that opens the door to prosecute judges and prosecutors
for liability offence. In extreme cases, carrying out their normal functions
could be interpreted as being unlawful according to subjective criteria. The
new version risks the independence of judges and prosecutors.
The Senate has yet to vote on the legislation
and already protests have started to reverse the changes made to the original
10 Measures against Corruption.
“Billions of dollars have been lost to
corruption in Brazil, and Brazilians have had enough of the corruption that is
ravaging their country. The Carwash Task Force is doing great work in ensuring
the corrupt, no matter how powerful they are, are held to account and that
justice is served,” said Mercedes de Freitas, Chair of Transparency’s
International Anti-Corruption Award Committee. “We are pleased to award the
Brazilian prosecutors behind the Carwash Task Force with the 2016
Anti-Corruption Award for their relentless efforts to end endemic corruption in
Brazil.”
The ongoing Carwash
Operation has triggered additional criminal investigations and proceedings in
other sectors and is recognised as a landmark for white-collar criminal
prosecution and defence in Brazil. The investigations have gained traction and
huge popular support on both national and international levels.
The prosecutors from the Carwash Task Force
are the second Brazilian awardees since the launch of Transparency International’s
awards in 2000 after the whistleblower Luis Roberto Mesquita who received an
Integrity Award in 2002.
It is noted that Transparency International received 580
nominations for 136 individuals for the 2016 Anti-Corruption Award, reinforcing
our belief that there is a need to celebrate the many heroes of the fight
against corruption. Nominations for this year’s award were submitted by the
public and Transparency International chapters around the world. The jury for
the award is a committee of 8 individuals from across the world who have been
active in the anti-corruption movement for many years. Past winners include
corruption fighting journalists, activists and government officials.
The Carwash Task Force
will receive the award later today during the 17th International
Anti-Corruption Conference in Panama City.
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