INCOSAI 2022 to conclude in Brazil
The 24th International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI) will conclude today in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Goals of the congress include improving the work of government audit institutions during crises or disasters, updating international audit standards and electing the Governing Board for the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.
Last Friday, Brazil’s auditing organization, the Federal Court of Audits (TCU), asked Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petrobras to suspend $8.47 billion in dividend payments to its shareholders in order to increase the firm’s financial stability. In July, the Public Prosecutor’s Office asked the TCU to investigate Petrobras for illegally renewing an oil rig contract with construction firm Etesco. Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has promised to reassert government ownership of Petrobras and increase the firm’s budget for refining and renewable energy development.
The TCU will likely highlight its work on reducing government corruption at the Congress in order to increase the court’s domestic and international legitimacy. Additionally, the TCU’s Petrobras investigations may intensify when Da Silva takes office due to his connections with the firm’s past corruption scandals. The TCU’s prominence and power in Brazilian politics will also likely grow in the coming years as Da Silva and Brazil’s opposition-controlled Congress seek to influence the TCU’s investigations into Petrobras and other organizations for their own political gain.
