Integrity Guidelines

Implement integrity guidelines for better compliance with articles 22 and 23 of Law 27 401 on Criminal Liability of Legal Persons.

Completion Status:
Partially fulfilled

Commitment filtering:

Specific: ✔ yes

The commitment can be considered specific because it refers to implementing a concrete policy instrument: the integrity guidelines defined by the Law on Criminal Liability of Legal Persons.[1] These guidelines are procedures to prevent, detect and correct irregularities and illegal acts. The Anti-Corruption Office further specified these guidelines in Resolution 27/2018, which was adopted in the same month as the 18th IACC, October 2018.[2] They therefore existed before the commitment was made. However, within the framework of the national anti-corruption plan,[3] there are three more specific commitments related to implementing the integrity guidelines:[4]

  • Commitment 4 (execution period: 2019) requires all suppliers interested in contracting with the national administration to sign specific integrity commitments. However, it is not specified what an integrity commitment entails.
  • Commitment 116 (execution period: 2020-2023) includes implementing a promotion and dissemination plan for the regulatory framework for integrity in public-private partnership contracts. It also aims at promoting training and dissemination activities in specific sectors at national, provincial and municipal levels.

Commitment 117 (execution period: 2020) includes a process to map companies that declare, within public procurement processes, that they have integrity standards.

[1] Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina, Law Nº 27.401, https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/175501/20171201?busqueda=1

[2] Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina, Resolution 27/2018, https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/193241/20181004?busqueda=1

[3] Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina, Executive Order 258/2019, Annex 1, https://www.boletinoficial.gob.ar/detalleAviso/primera/205233/20190411?busqueda=1

[4] Anti-Corruption Office, Guidelines for the implementation of integrity programmes, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/anticorrupcion/prevencion/transparencia/lineamientos

Measurable: ✔ yes

This commitment is measurable because it identifies the implementation of integrity guidelines as a clear action. How this will be achieved is further defined in the national anti-corruption plan:

  1. Include integrity clauses in public contracting (the content of these clauses is not specified)
  2. Implement the “Plan for the Promotion of Integrity Programmes for Legal Entities”
  3. Develop a mapping process for companies that declare they have integrity standards, for use in purchasing, contracting and public works processes.
Last updated: 22 October 2022
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Evaluation:

When this commitment was made, the Anti-Corruption Office had already specified the integrity guidelines in Resolution 27/2018. This means the commitment is a description of an existing anti-corruption framework. However, within the framework of the National Anti-Corruption Plan (Executive Order 258/2019), the Anti-Corruption Office added three more specific commitments[1] related to implementing the integrity guidelines:

  1. The inclusion of integrity clauses in public infrastructure contracts

In the Public, National and International Tender for the Waterway Main Navigable Way, the bidding terms included a chapter on Integrity and Transparency, and incorporated conditions of integrity and transparency clauses.[2]

However, there is no public evidence that integrity clauses were included in other public infrastructure contracts. When we requested this information from the Anti-Corruption Office for this report, they responded to the request without providing information on the contracts in which integrity clauses were implemented.[3]

  1. Implementation of a “Plan for Promotion of Integrity Programmes for Legal Entities ”

The Plan for Promotion of Integrity Programmes for Legal Entities includes training and dissemination activities in specific sectors, such as small and medium-sized enterprises, at national, provincial and municipal levels. There is no public information about this plan, and when asked in a public information request for this report,[4] the Anti-Corruption Office provided only a list of past activities, instead of a strategic plan that can be used to monitor systematically what has been implemented and what has not. In 2021, the office organised two courses under the framework for “Integrity and Public Ethics Guidelines: essential aspects of corporate responsibility for corruption (Law No. 27,401)”. This activity aimed to develop the essential aspects of the corporate responsibility regime, conceptualise an integrity programme and explore the main legal effects of its adoption by companies. The Anti-Corruption Office has also carried out meetings and roundtables with the private sector in order to create a space for permanent dialogue over collective action, and form a community to debate and produce transparency policies. In terms of the dissemination and external communication of RITE (see below), the Anti-Corruption Office held workshops with the Argentine Union of State Suppliers (Unión Argentina de Proveedores del Estado) and the German and British Chambers of Commerce.[5]

  1. Mapping companies that declare they have integrity programmes

The Anti-Corruption Office launched the first voluntary integrity and transparency registry for companies and entities in Argentina in May 2022, RITE.[6] The registry aims to contribute to the development, improvement and maturity of organisational integrity programmes,[7] exchange good practices, and promote transparent environments in businesses and markets. RITE’s approach is twofold: the registry itself, which allows companies and entities to make their commitment to ethical business visible, and the toolbox, to support the development of integrity programmes and help public entities improve their understanding of the integrity programmes of companies they contract.[8]

Overall, this commitment is considered only partially fulfilled.

 

Challenges to effective commitment implementation
 

1.     Lack of transparency in public infrastructure contracts: Information on the inclusion of integrity clauses in public infrastructure contracts is not publicly available. This leads to lack of the transparency needed for citizens and civil society to hold the government accountable for this commitment.

2.     Lack of transparency of the Plan for Promotion of Integrity Programmes for Legal Entities: The plan is not available on the Anti-Corruption Office website, nor did the office provide it when asked in a public information request for this report. The Anti-Corruption Office only provided a list of past activities, instead of a strategic plan that can be used to monitor systematically what has been implemented and what has not.

3.     Voluntary nature and lack of verification mechanism of the new Registry of Integrity and Transparency for Companies and Entities (RITE): The voluntary nature of RITE leads to the registry being incomplete, and there are no obligations for companies to commit to their integrity programmes. There are also no mechanisms to verify that the information provided by companies is legitimate.

 
Opportunities to accelerate commitment implementation
The Anti-Corruption Office is working with the Mexican Chapter of the World Compliance Association on integrity platforms promoted in both countries: RITE in Argentina and the Register of Business Integrity of Mexico.[9] Argentina can benefit from this joined work through learning more about best practices.

 
Recommendations
  • Promote the “Guidelines for the implementation of integrity programmes”[10] created by the Anti-Corruption Office by making them more accessible. The guidelines provide technical guidance for the design, implementation and self-assessment of integrity programmes, and are aimed at companies and other legal entities, civil society organisations, state agencies, operators of the justice system and the expert professional community. Currently, the guidelines are not visible enough and very difficult to access on the Anti-Corruption Office website, requiring a specially targeted search.
  • Include in the registry not only private companies and public entities, but other entities such as cooperatives.
  • Make registration mandatory for companies and include a verification mechanism for the information they provide.

 

[1] Anti-Corruption Office Argentina, Guidelines for the implementation of integrity programmes, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/anticorrupcion/prevencion/transparencia/lineamientos

[2] Ministry of Transport, “Integrity and Transparency Clauses to be Included in the Waterway Tender Specifications”, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/transporte/via-navegable-troncal/clausulas-de-integridad-y-transparencia-para-incorporar-al-pliego-de-licitacion-de-la-hidrovia

[3] See Annex 6, https://iaccmonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IACC-Monitor-Report-Argentina-2018-2022.pdf.

[4] See Annex 7, https://iaccmonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IACC-Monitor-Report-Argentina-2018-2022.pdf.

[5] See Annex 8, https://iaccmonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IACC-Monitor-Report-Argentina-2018-2022.pdf.

[6] Anti-Corruption Office Argentina, RITE, https://www.rite.gob.ar

[7] Integrity programmes being defined by Law Nº 27.401 are the set of actions and mechanisms to promote integrity, supervision and control, aimed at preventing, detecting and correcting irregularities and illicit acts covered by this law.

[8] Anti-Corruption Office Argentina, RITE, https://www.rite.gob.ar

[9] Argentina Republic, Mexico and Argentina presented their platforms for the development of integrity in companies, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/mexico-y-argentina-presentaron-sus-plataformas-para-el-desarrollo-de-integridad-en-empresas

[10] Anti-Corruption Office Argentina, Guidelines for implementation of integrity programmes, https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/lineamientos_para_la_implementacion.pdf