Featured Commitment – Brazil
Country: Brazil
CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...: Participatory AuditsInstitutional and legal frameworks are necessary for providing assurance of the integrity of financial information and of compliance with budgetary rules and procedure. Technical specifications: These... on the Constructions of Brazilian Host Cities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup
National Action Plan: 2013-15
!n 2013, in response to widespread social movements and protests, Brazil made a commitment on public integrity in its preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Specifically, the government committed to carry out participatory audits on compliance with human and laborTransparent workforce data and increased representation of workers in labor policy-making lead to policies that better protect workers’ rights and remove barriers for underrepresented groups in the ... rights in construction projects in all of the host cities for the event.
As a result, in each of the 12 cities the Secretariat-General of the Presidency (SGP) held meetings with social movements, universities, and civil society organizations. After each, the reports were published online and the leaders of the Secretariat-General received the main results.
Participants in the audits had mixed opinions about their effectiveness. Some recognized the government effort to provide transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and participation on a sensitive but critical topic. Others, however, criticized that the discussions precluded the financial transparency of the projects, and that the audits’ reports often did not have any effect on addressing or preventing human rightsAn essential part of open government includes protecting the sacred freedoms and rights of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and holding those who violate human rights accountable. T... abuses.
In that sense, the IRM researcher found that “the commitment produced more of a documentation of irregularities, using civil society as a source of information, rather than actual participatory audiences…to collect and solve problems.”
Still, the commitment was a significant step in the right direction. The lessons learned will serve Brazil well as it navigates a complicated fiscal situation, manages the global FIFA corruption scandal, and prepares for the 2016 Olympic Games that are expected to reemerge many of the same issues on open government and mega-sports from 2014.