General Regime for the Prevention of Corruption: declaration on the absence of conflicts of interest

On August 14th, Ordinance no. 185/2024/1 was published, approving the template for the declaration of absence of conflicts of interest for members of the management bodies, directors and employees of public entities covered by the General Regime for the Prevention of Corruption (GRPC).

The GRPC, established by Decree-Law no. 109-E/2021, of December 9^th, implemented part of the objectives of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2020‑24, as discussed in a previous Legal Alert (only available in Portuguese).

Public entities covered by the GRPC are subject to specific provisions that aim, in particular, to ensure administrative impartiality and avoid conflicts of interest (Article 13). The GRPC defines the concept of “conflict of interest” as encompassing any situation in which one can reasonably doubt the impartiality of the conduct or decision of the member of the management body, director or employee, under the terms of Articles 69 and 73 of the Code of Administrative Procedure, approved in annex to Decree-Law no. 4/2015, of January 7th (cf. Article 13(4) of the GRPC).

In this context, the aforementioned regime stipulates that public entities must adopt measures to ensure the impartiality of the members of their management bodies, directors and employees, namely by establishing the obligation for these individuals to sign a declaration attesting the absence of conflicts of interest. In particular, the declaration must be filled and signed in the context of all procedures in which they participate, insofar as these procedures are related to public procurement, to the granting of subsidies or benefits, to licensing associated with town-planning, environmental, commercial and industrial matters, and to sanctioning procedures. The same regime also stipulates that the board of directors or the manager of the public entity is responsible to ensure that this obligation is complied with (cf. Article 13(5) of the GRPC).

In this context, Ordinance no. 185/2024/1 defines the template for the declaration of absence of conflicts of interest, as per the model attached to the Decree.

Morais Leitão's team - Duarte Santana Lopes, João Rodrigues Brito and Patrícia Garcia - is continuing to analyse this new legislation in detail, so that it can collaborate with its clients in implementing the measures and internal regulations necessary to comply with it and, above all, make it possible to manage the risks associated with corrupt practices, in general, and with the violation of these new rules, in particular, thus remaining at your complete disposal for any clarification on the subject.