Anti-corruption Plan: Integrity Program

President Macri approved Decree No. 258/2019 (the “Decree”) implementing the “National Anti-corruption Plan (2019 - 2023)” on April 11, 2019. The Decree’s recitals highlight the obligations that Argentina has undertaken in the international arena regarding the fight against corruption.

As a response to the international mandate, the Argentine Executive has designed and implemented an integral plan for the next five years, establishing and describing the objectives and goals of the government’s actions in the fight against corruption.

The plan includes 260 initiatives of which 172 are divided into three main groups: (i) Transparency and Open Government Initiatives (see: "Anti-corruption Plan: Initiatives on Transparency and Open Government") (ii) Integrity and Prevention Initiatives (see: "Anti-corruption Plan: Initiatives to Prevent Money Laundering") and (iii) Investigation and Sanctions Initiatives. The remaining 88 initiatives involve certain sectorial initiatives, including the Argentine Federal Tax Authority; entities related to sports, state-owned companies, extractive industries, health, and flora and fauna trafficking.

Among the main three groups of initiatives, certain measures may be considered to implement different elements of what may be called an integrity or compliance program of the Argentine Federal Government.

In this sense, the Transparency and Open Government initiatives include the design of an anti-corruption clause for public contracts and surveys regarding perception of corruption and ethics.

Among the Integrity and Prevention Initiatives, are measures addressing the implementation of codes of conduct in different bodies of the Argentine Federal Government, the enactment of “Conflict of Interest” policies, and other initiatives focused on risk management.

Investigation and Sanctions Initiatives include measures specifically focused on providing new legal tools for the fight against corruption and others especially focused on the recovery of goods involved in corruption acts. Among them, we can highlight: (i) amendments to criminal legislation; (ii) amendments to  procedural criminal legislation; (iii) procedural regime for civil action for asset forfeiture; (iv) international treaties focused on the recovery of assets; and (v) implementation of whistleblower channels and polices to protect whistleblowers from retaliation.

Each of the initiatives has been allocated on different entities of the Government and given a specific deadline. The Decree establishes that the “ad-honorem” Advisory Committee must be in charge of following the implementation of the initiatives included in the Plan. According to section 2 of the Decree, the Advisory Committee must be created by the Argentine Anti-corruption Office of the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.