Businesses implicated in kickback probe sustain half a million jobs

The 23 large contractors and energy companies implicated in the kickback probe on Petrobras known as the “Car Wash” Operation have 50,000 vendors and suppliers behind them totaling nearly half a million jobs. Together, they account for 13% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This the information provided by Attorney-General Luís Adams, who met Thursday (Mar. 5) with business leaders at the Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro (FIRJAN).

Adams believes that the key to avoid letting the investigations on the Petrobras scandal impact Brazil's economy could be the so-called leniency deals, an opportunity for the implicated businesses to self-report for bribery and actively take steps to compensate victims and prevent further wrongdoing in exchange for retaining their contracts with the government.

According to Adams, allowing the companies to continue to do business is not in contradiction with combating corruption. “There are legal remedies that enable [authorities] to fight corruption with the contractor's compliance, conduct change, cooperation, compensation, while at the same time allowing them to continue [their business]. There's no need to let these legal consequences devastate 500,000 employees and thousands of investors who placed their bets on that economic activity and have nothing to do with the wrongdoing because of only a few who had,” he said.

The self-reporting process requires the presence of a government official in the company who will be closely monitoring to check that they will do their job in the deal. “One of the international elements [in leniency deals] is this sort of inside monitoring of the company by a State-appointed agent to see that they are actively cooperating with the investigations. This is a challenge that the companies have to accept,” he added.

Also as part of the agreement, the corporate management is required to step aside until the investigations are completed. “This is critical to ensure the integrity of the process and keep it consistent with its purpose of combating corruption rather than saving the company.”

The chairman at FIRJAN said the oil and gas crisis in Rio de Janeiro is far-reaching, because the state is one of the main oil producers and hosts the largest shipyards in the country.

“While it's true that Brazilians can no longer tolerate corruption, economic activity is vital. We must preserve these businesses' existing knowledge, engineering, workforce, and revenue. Petrobras is at a standstill and we need to find a way to allow it to go ahead. Just because there were a dozen dishonest people at Petrobras it doesn't necessarily follow that it should close its doors,” he said.

Translated by Mayra Borges

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