Bolsonaro blows it for whistleblowers

The Brazilian president’s office adopted new legislation on Friday that allows for whistleblowers to have their identity revealed to senior officials “upon express justification.” The new rules concern the government’s hotline service for receiving formal complaints about misconduct of public officials. 

The legislation states that “the identification of the informant must be preserved by the presidency’s ombudsman when forwarding the complaint” to higher authorities. But higher-ups “may request information on the informant’s identity when it is essential for the analysis of the facts reported.”

The text gives senior officials the prerogative for deciding when a whistleblower’s identity is essential information for them. Experts point out that, without independent oversight, the provisions could expose whistleblowers to reprimands and ultimately deter them from reporting wrongdoing.

Per norms issued in March by the Federal Comptroller’s Office, informants’ individual data can be shared with public agencies with their consent, if it follows a court’s decision, or “upon request from the investigative bodies — when essential to the analysis of the facts reported in the complaint.” 

Still, those cases are exceptions. The rule-of-thumb should be protecting individuals’ data to prevent reprisals. Compliance officers told The Brazilian Report that a hotline system that does not allow for anonymous complaints is “ineffective”.

This is just the latest move by Brazilian politicians to chip away at the country’s anti-corruption framework, less than a decade after indignation against corruption triggered a nationwide wave of protests that rocked...