National Anti-Corruption Mechanism – recommendation

Under the General Regime for the Prevention of Corruption, established by Decree-Law 109-E/2021 of December 9, legal entities with 50 or more employees are required to implement a regulatory compliance program. This program must include—at a minimum—a risk prevention plan for corruption and related offenses (the “PPR”), a code of conduct, a training program, and a whistleblowing channel. This is aimed at preventing, detecting and sanctioning corrupt activities and related offenses. To ensure the effective implementation of the program, legal entities are required to appoint a compliance officer.

In implementing the PPR, obligated entities must prepare an interim evaluation report in October, identifying situations of high or maximum risk. In April of the year following implementation, they are then required to prepare an annual evaluation report, quantifying the extent to which the identified preventive and corrective measures have been implemented and anticipating when they will be implemented in full.

The National Anti-Corruption Mechanism (“MENAC”) recently issued Recommendation 7/2024. Published in the Official Gazette on May 28, 2024, it is directed at those responsible for regulatory compliance in obligated entities, requiring them to submit a monthly report to MENAC (in addition to the above reports). This monthly report is due by the first week of the month following the one in question. In it, obligated entities must specify whether adherence to the regulatory compliance program has been regular and, if not, detail compliance deficiencies or irregularities.

The recommendation enters into force in June 2024, meaning the first monthly report must be submitted to MENAC in the first week of July.