June

National Anti-Corruption Mechanism 

The Government approved, in a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the decree-law that creates the National Anti-Corruption Mechanism.

The National Anti-Corruption Mechanism is an independent administrative entity, with powers of initiative, control and sanction, with attributions at the level of collection and processing of information and organization of programmes of anti-corruption activities among public entities and private entities.

The National Anti-Corruption Mechanism shall be responsible for the control and implementation of the General Regime for the Prevention of Corruption ("RGPC"), for the verification of the respective infractions, the processing of administrative offences and the application of the corresponding fines, as well as for establishing a link between the public and private entities intervening in the prevention and repression of corruption.

The law also approves the General Regime for the Prevention of Corruption, which obliges private companies, public companies and services integrated in the direct and indirect administration of the State, with 50 or more workers, to adopt risk prevention programmes, codes of conduct, channels for denunciation and appropriate training programmes to prevent corruption and related infractions.

In fact, the existence, implementation, updating and observance of regulatory compliance programmes (corruption risk maps, codes of conduct, manuals of good practices) must be included in the evaluation processes, as a way of ensuring the effectiveness of these programmes in the dynamics of the Administration.

The mandatory adoption of these Codes of Conduct, together with the incompatibility and impediments regimes guarantee the existence of a common standard of ethical requirements in the exercise of political functions and public activity.

The law provides for the establishment of a permanent exchange of information (between the Court of Auditors, courts, Public Prosecution Service and private organizations) regarding best practices and new strategies to prevent, detect and repress corruptive phenomena. The exchange of information could be facilitated through the creation of "digital banks" and a communication platform bringing together various institutions that will be managed and monitored by the Anti-Corruption Mechanism.

In the logic of the approved diplomas against corruption, a law proposal was also approved, which will be submitted to the Parliament, aiming to extinguish the Lisbon Criminal Investigation Court, to integrate its competences in the Central Court of Criminal Investigation, increasing the number of magistrates that integrate the Central Court of Criminal Investigation.