In the thick of a crisis in Brazilian politics, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) held a debate on ethics in public administration on June 10. Discussions focused around the theme of electoral lobbying and political party financing, addressing some anti-corruption practices that could be implemented in Brazilian law.

The first part of the debate featured the coordinator of the Center for Justice and Society (CJUS) of FGV’s Rio de Janeiro Law School (Direito Rio), professor Michael Mohallem, who talked about election lobbying and political party financing. The professor addressed the high cost of election campaigns in a democratic government, as well as the interests that would lead large companies to finance specific parties, emphasizing on how to ensure legal donations to those parties and discussing measures that may prevent parallel accounts.

Next, former Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE) professor Hermano Cherques talked about ethics in public administration. The discussion focused on several ethical dilemmas that exist in both the public and private sectors. In addition, according to the professor, the main purpose of his explanation was to promote reflection on some attitudes that citizens could take in their daily lives while managers of public or private organizations, which bring direct and indirect consequences for the rest of society.

An initiative by FGV’s Latin American Center for Public Policy (CLPP), the debate on ethics, election lobbying, and political party financing was held as part of the Latin American Program of Seminars on Governance, Policy Management, and Public Management. This initiative began from a partnership between FGV, the Latin America Development Bank (CAF), and George Washington University, empowering civil servants to exercise their activities with excellence.