Gestão Transparente.org celebrates 2 years with the enrolment of the first local government authority

The GestãoTransparente.org - A Practical Guide to Managing the Corruption Risk in Organisations project, of which REN is a partner, recently celebrated its second anniversary. Porto Municipal Council hosted the event to commemorate this milestone, officially announcing its enrolment in this initiative to fight corruption and promote transparency in organisations.

Gil Vicente, REN's Internal Audit Manager, attended the ceremony and he referred to this partnership as 'a process of collaboration between companies to adopt stringent measures to fight all forms of corruption'.

Rui Moreira, Mayor of Porto, emphasised that 'the issue of prevention of corruption is a key area in the management of public affairs, at a time when people feel there exists an iceberg and only the tip above water is perceptible. We are all responsible for destroying that iceberg and this is best done through prevention and the good practices that this project highlights'.

Several other entities also enrolled in the initiative besides Porto Municipal Council, the first local authority to join. One such entity was the Portuguese NGO fighting corruption, Ponto Final, and another was the world's largest hydroelectric power plant, ITAIPU Binacional (Brazil/Paraguay).

The GestãoTransparente.Org project was launched in December 2012 as part of the commemorations of International Anti-Corruption Day. Its main aim is to raise awareness among the business community and civil society in general to the problems associated with the phenomenon of corruption, as well as the benefits from early identification of its risks and the implementation of internal and external policies and actions to promote transparency and fight corruption. A group of companies based in Portugal decided to launch a website to achieve these aims.

The website provides free access to a range of legal and theoretical information as well as a simulator that gauges the corruption risk an organisation is exposed to. The website also makes recommendations to companies to mitigate their exposure to risk, based on their simulator results.
The Gestão Transparente.org - A Practical Guide to Managing the Corruption Risk in Organisations project is considered a benchmark by the OECD, Basel Institute of Governance and United Nations Global Compact.

REN has also joined other anti-corruption initiatives, as is the case of the United Nations Global Compact (since 2005) and the United Nations Convention against Corruption. It has internal rules and tools that promote transparency, integrity and prevent corruption risks in the company, such as the Social Responsibility Policy Statement, the Code of Conduct or the Risk Management Process.

The partners of this initiative, besides REN, include the companies CEIIA, EPAL, INTELI, MICROSOFT, MTS, REN and SIEMENS. The companies CARRIS, CP, ISTEC and METRO also collaborate with the project. The observers of this innovative project are the Corruption Prevention Board (CPC), Central Department for Criminal Investigation and Prosecution (DCIAP) and University of Minho.