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Brazil Ministry of Finance creates task force to promote transparency in the authorisation process for online gambling

| By Gildo Mazza
The decision will not take practical effect until after this year’s elections. An administrative order set a 120-day deadline for completing the work after the government reversed its 100-year confidentiality policy regarding the review of operator licensing applications in Brazil.
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On 20 July, the Ministry of Finance published Administrative Order No. 2,126, which establishes a task force to ensure transparency in the licensing processes for betting operators. The measure was taken after the government reversed its decision to keep the evaluations of betting licence applications confidential for up to 100 years.

The decision is in line with the announcement by Minister Dario Durigan that the government has decided to make public the analyses conducted by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA). Until then, the government had chosen to keep all cases submitted to the SPA confidential. The rationale for confidentiality was the protection of sensitive data.

Following criticism, Dario Durigan stated that the disclosure of proceedings is a fundamental principle of the federal government’s transparency policy.

“My commitment — like President Lula’s — is a commitment to transparency,” he said. “This is not a government of secrecy; it is not a government that intends to hoard information or withhold it from the public.”

Administrative Ordinance No. 2,126 established a task force to implement transparency regarding administrative proceedings under the purview of the SPA concerning authorisations for operators to commercially exploit fixed-odds betting. It is composed of 15 members.

Responsibilities

In the document, the Ministry of Finance defines the Task Force’s responsibilities:

– to analyse and identify sensitive personal data or information with restricted access, in accordance with applicable legislation;

– to anonymise and redact sensitive personal data and restricted-access information prior to the disclosure of administrative proceedings. This will be carried out according to technical criteria established by the SPA.

The SPA’s Authorisation Undersecretariat will be responsible for coordinating, guiding and supervising the execution of the Task Force’s activities.

The Ministry of Finance has set a 120-day timeframe for the Task Force’s operations. Afterward, the Authorisation Undersecretariat must submit a consolidated report to the SPA’s Office.

The Office will be responsible for forwarding the report to the Minister of Finance. Subsequently, it will take measures to publish the processed documents and ensure transparency.

The information will only be made public after the elections, which take place on 4 October (first round) and 25 October (second round).

Initially, Durigan stated that all concluded proceedings would be widely disclosed. This information was provided during an interview on 8 June.