Political Risk:
Moderate
Score:
57/100
Defence and Security Policy and Policy Transparency
Q1
67/100
Is there formal provision for effective and independent legislative scrutiny of defence policy?
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All laws and main national policies, budgets, major arms procurements, and defence decisions are subject to evaluation by the two legislative chambers in Brazil.…
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There is a well-known lack of interest in defence policy from Brazilian legislators. Both the Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs and National Defence (CRE)…
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The military has been exerting influence on the legislature through strong and traditional lobby activities within the legislature, through the military parliamentary assistance from…
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Q2
50/100
Does the country have an identifiable and effective parliamentary defence and security committee (or similar such organisations) to exercise oversight?
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The Legislative Commissions on Defence have the power to discuss defence budgets and to amend the country’s Budgetary Plan [1]. In 2019, the Senate’s…
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Most members have little expertise in the defence sector [1, 2]. Regarding 2019, the president of the Chamber of Deputies’ Commission on Foreign Affairs…
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The Legislative Commission on Defence debate, amend and approve (or not) the defence policies of Brazil. The National Defence Policy states that they shall…
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CREDN and CRE meet almost every week, sometimes having two meetings in one week – one ordinary and deliberative meeting, and another to discuss…
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As stated above, CREDN and CRE meet almost every week, but not all of the meetings held by the CREDN are related to defence…
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The committee has the right to call for public and secret meetings with any official from the armed forces and any minister, and also…
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Q3
31/100
Is the country’s national defence policy or national security strategy debated and publicly available?
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There have been no major institutional modifications on civilian participation in the Brazilian defence policies since the last edition of Transparency International’s Government Defence…
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The debates are extremely superficial. According to the transcription of the Senate’s voting of the last version of the defence policy documents, no single…
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Brazilian defence policy documents were revised in 2016 and made public in May of 2017. The Ministry of Defence made a public consultation [1]…
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This type of policy cannot be enacted without legislative approval. The transparency system of the federal legislative branch is quite effective since it shows…
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Q4
17/100
Do defence and security institutions have a policy, or evidence, of openness towards civil society organisations (CSOs) when dealing with issues of corruption?
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There are no formal or informal procedures that require openness towards civil society organizations (CSOs), but there are few CSOs that proactively study defence…
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There are plenty of different types of civil society organizations (CSOs) that can operate in Brazil. There are non-governmental organizations or CSOs, which are…
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There is no strong evidence of the involvement of CSOs on issues of corruption in defence [1]. The only strong evidence of engagement is…
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Q5
75/100
Has the country signed up to the following international anti-corruption instruments: UNCAC and the OECD Convention?
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Brazil has signed both the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) [1] and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention [2]. Besides those two anti-corruption instruments, the…
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The 2017 ‘Follow-up to phase 3 report’, from the OECD Convention, stated enhancements in many areas, such as the enactment ‘of a new Corporate…
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Q6
50/100
Is there evidence of regular, active public debate on issues of defence? If yes, does the government participate in this debate?
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There is a high variation in participation among academia, the media, and CSOs regarding defence issues. The media is still distant from the debate,…
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In Brazil, only the presidency often uses media briefings to communicate with civil society. The most common means ministers use to communicate with civil…
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Q7
75/100
Does the country have an openly stated and effectively implemented anti-corruption policy for the defence sector?
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An Integrity Plan was launched in 2018, it was created due to the Federal General Comptroller’s (CGU) request to follow international standards of anti-corruption…
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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has an Integrity Plan that mandated by CGU, has to encompass an evaluation of weaknesses of the institution. The…
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Q8
83/100
Are there independent, well-resourced, and effective institutions within defence and security tasked with building integrity and countering corruption?
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The Union Court of Auditors (Tribunal de Contas da União) (TCU) is an important institution of external control in Brazil that has powers to…
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The TCU is independent of the three branches of government. Its independence is established by the Constitution [1].
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According to an interviewee [1], generally, the Military Justice and the Military Public Ministry tend to have a corporatist behaviour towards the armed forces,…
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Q9
NS/100
Does the public trust the institutions of defence and security to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in their establishments?
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. The public has high confidence in the integrity of the armed forces, evidenced the…
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Q10
38/100
Are there regular assessments of the areas of greatest corruption risk for ministry and armed forces personnel, and are the findings used as inputs to the anti-corruption policy?
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In comparison to the 2015 assessment, there were advances: the assessor found two audits related to projects of the armed forces on the Court…
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Decree 9.203/2017 [1] and the CGU’s internal regulation 1089/2018 [2] estimate that risk assessments should be reviewed periodically, but neither of these documents stipulates…
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There is not enough information to score this indicator. Due to the very recent nature of the Integrity Action Plans, it is not possible…
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Defence Budgets
Q11
75/100
Does the country have a process for acquisition planning that involves clear oversight, and is it publicly available?
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As the previous assessments pointed out, most of the defence acquisitions occur under the same Acquisitions Law (Law 8.666/1993) [1], which is a complex…
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All government acquisitions are registered and displayed on government websites – whether on Comprasnet (the federal government acquisition portal) [1, 2] or specific websites…
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The existing oversight functions assess performance and the country’s long-term acquisition plans, and they also assess the legitimacy of plans. The Court of Auditors…
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Q12
100/100
Is the defence budget transparent, showing key items of expenditure? And it is provided to the legislature in a timely fashion?
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Q13
63/100
Is there a legislative committee (or other appropriate body) responsible for defence budget scrutiny and analysis in an effective way?
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There are three defence committees with extensive formal rights of scrutiny of the defence budget: the budget committee (Comissão Mista de Orçamento) and the…
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The Legislative Commissions on defence have the power to discuss defence budgets and to amend the country’s Budgetary Plan [1]. This year, the Senate’s…
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Q14
67/100
Is the approved defence budget made publicly available? In practice, can citizens, civil society, and the media obtain detailed information on the defence budget?
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The legislative process surrounding the annual budget is well documented on the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate’s websites [1] [2], but in a…
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According to one military interviewee, most secret parts are contained within specific contracts, that may restrict access to specifics and quantities of the products…
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Brazil’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) works relatively well in the federal government, even for sensitive requests, the Ministry of Defence shows good and…
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Q15
58/100
Are sources of defence income other than from central government allocation (from equipment sales or property disposal, for example) published and scrutinised?
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The publication of additional resources (off national budget, but still from the central government) of income for Defence happens. From 2015 to 2018, PAC2…
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Internal control institutions can audit all processes concerning other defence incomes. It should be noted that the internal control of the Ministry of Defence…
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Brazilian media is historically uninterested in defence issues. Lately, military activities are gaining attention because of President Bolsonaro’s institutional alignment with the military. However,…
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Q16
100/100
Is there an effective internal audit process for defence ministry expenditure (that is, for example, transparent, conducted by appropriately skilled individuals, and subject to parliamentary oversight)?
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The Federal General Comptroller (CGU) is not the organization responsible for the Ministry of Defence’s internal control within the federal government. For this sector,…
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Legislative committees can have access to all the documents they want, and even when internal control reports are insufficient, they can ask for the…
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Available audits can be found in the Ministry of Defence website [1]. On this page, all accounts and administrative audits are available in pdf…
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The audit findings are valued and implemented by the minister of defence regularly. Firstly, because the internal control acts as a special advisor in…
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Q17
100/100
Is there effective and transparent external auditing of military defence expenditure?
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The Court of Auditors (TCU) is the external control institution of the federal government, and it aims to assist the national congress in exerting…
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The TCU’s independence is established by the Constitution, and among its competencies are: (a) to fiscalize the national accounts of supranational companies; (b) to…
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On the TCU’s website, there are two extensive assessments to projects of the armed forces. However, after an FOIA request, the TCU asserted that…
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If the Ministry of Defence or any of the branches of the armed forces fail to comply with the TCU’s recommendations, there could be…
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Nexus of Defence and National Assets
Q18
70/100
Is there evidence that the country’s defence institutions have controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation and, if so, are these interests publicly stated and subject to scrutiny?
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There is no explicit prohibition of defence institutions controlling financial or business-related to natural resource exploitation. However, there is no evidence that any defence…
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There are few references in the media to royalties or financial interests of the armed forces in natural resources [1, 2]. However, draft bills…
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The assessor found no evidence of involvement of military officials acting in companies that explore natural resources [1, 2].
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The assessor found very limited evidence of involvement of military officials acting in companies that explore natural resources. Their interests are related to having…
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In order for any military institution to have access to these royalties, the Parliament must approve it, and they denied access to the Army…
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Organised Crime
Q19
38/100
Is there evidence, for example through media investigations or prosecution reports, of a penetration of organised crime into the defence and security sector? If no, is there evidence that the government is alert and prepared for this risk?
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Q20
42/100
Is there policing to investigate corruption and organised crime within the defence services and is there evidence of the effectiveness of this policing?
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According to an interviewee, The Federal Police and even the state civilian police can investigate any relationship between organized crime and the armed forces,…
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The Brazilian Federal Police is not subordinate to nor dependent on military institutions. It is under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice and…
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The assessor found no evidence of undue political influence in the media [1]. However, according to an interviewee, investigations are not always undertaken because…
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Control of Intelligence Services
Q21
38/100
Are the policies, administration, and budgets of the intelligence services subject to effective and independent oversight?
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The Committee for Intelligence Control (CCAI – Comissão de Controle das Atividades de Inteligência), created in 2013, has powers to exert oversight of any…
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Since 2015, seven public hearings occurred [1], and none of them occurred in 2018 or 2019. The complete content of the meetings is not…
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Q22
33/100
Are senior positions within the intelligence services filled on the basis of objective selection criteria, and are appointees subject to investigation of their suitability and prior conduct?
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In Brazil, there is the Brazilian Agency of Intelligence (ABIN), it is under the command of the Gabinete de Segurança Institucional da Presidência da…
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Considering the selection process for the ABIN, since its chief is chosen by the president [1], the veto power from the Senate might suffer…
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There are norms for vetting any military personnel from working in the intelligence system. The functions of these vetting mechanisms are similar in every…
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Export Controls
Q23
33/100
Does the government have a well-scrutinised process for arms export decisions that aligns with Articles 7.1.iv, 11.5, and 15.6 of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)?
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Brazil ratified the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in August 2018 [1], the ratification included the whole Treaty (no articles were omitted from the ratification)…
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The ATT was ratified in 2018, and it was enacted by Decree 9.607/2018, in December 2018. This decree established the National Policy of Import…
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One year after the enactment, the assessor could not find any assessments in the media nor any discussion in the legislature (both chambers) regarding…
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Lobbying in Defence
Lobbying regulations in Brazil has been debated for decades, but none of the draft bills was enacted. Pressures to regulate the activity are increasing,…
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ as Brazil does not have legislation that regulates lobbying [1].
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ as Brazil does not have legislation that regulates lobbying [1].
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ as Brazil does not have legislation that regulates lobbying [1].
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