Because it is a legally international company, governed by the Treaty of Itaipu and its annexes, the entity is not subject to the Access to Information Act (Law 12.537/11), known as LAI, sanctioned by the Federative Republic of Brazil and aims to guarantee the constitutional right of free access of citizens to any public information by the Union, States, Federal District and Municipalities.

Still, at the forefront of companies that value the transparency in the management and fulfilling the agreement assumed by Brazil and Paraguay before the international community in treaties and various conventions, Itaipu has to adopt, as appropriate and without prejudice to the provisions in its Treaty, the measures aimed at maximizing access to information, seeking to comply with the access Laws to existing information in Brazil and Paraguay and keeping convergence with the practices adopted by federal public companies, particularly in the electricity sector.

One of the measures already adopted by Itaipu was the reorganization of the company’s website, making available to the public a variety of information grouped in the “Access to Information” icon. Unavailable data can be requested through Contact Us [+] itaipu@itaipu.gov.br and Ombudsman (through the website, email, phone or in person). Requests for access to information that is not available on the company website or in any way can endanger the company’s image are necessarily assessed by the Ombudsman.

Hierarchically subordinate to the Supervisory Board, the Brazilian General Ombudsman was established in 2009 to attend the general public and after three years also started to receive workforce’s demands. The contact forms include a form on the website and intranet, telephone (+ 55 45 3520 6800), letter, email [+] ouvidoria@itaipu.gov.br or schedule personal service.

The number of contacts received in 2015 increased 19.5% over the previous year. One reason is that the Ombudsman has centralized the service to several requests for information of public or private interest that aim to improve transparency in the management and somehow mention the Access Laws to current information in both countries, or dealing with sensitive issues that may cause risk to Itaipu’s image.

This new procedure was adopted as a result of recommendations made in December 2014 by the Working Group set up to monitor and study the evolution of the theme “Access to Information” in both countries. A proposal for review of the Ombudsman Standard will be submitted in 2016 to the Supervisory Board and the Board of Directors. The aim is to upgrade and regularize the new procedures and align the type of concepts, classification of events, response time and treatment for complaints with those used by other ombudsmen in Brazil and Paraguay.

The review should also result in the need to change the Computerized Ombudsman System, used binationally in Itaipu, to enable management of all demand, view the service flow, monitoring indicators and generate reports more efficiently.

Still in 2016 we intend to perform the first Valuation Seminar on Ethical Culture, Diversity and Citizenship, in a joint initiative between the Ombudsman, the Ethics Committee, the Internal Audit and the Corporate Planning. It is supposed to be an annual event, which must be attended by all employees. The program will address essential human virtues and values and should address issues such as compliance, gender, professional behavior, diversity and inclusion, and discuss the broad concepts of ethics and its application in the lives of people and businesses.

The General Brazilian Ombudsman reports monthly to Eletrobras Ombudsman in cases involving fraud and corruption. In 2015, there were no allegations of fraud, corruption or irregularities in bidding processes or product or service procurement. [G4-SO5]

• Of the 16 contacts by the internal public, two cases were referred to the Ethics Committee and one to internal administrative investigation analysis. In three cases it was necessary to conduct conciliatory mediation of conflicts. The “reports” considered founded in the evaluation were basically inadequate attitude of employees. To solve the problems, recommendations of internal administrative measures made by the Ombudsman have been adopted. Regarding the cases reported in 2015 and that were not resolved in the reporting period, one was settled in 2014 and another remained pending.
• An anonymous complaint stating that a subcontractor to provide services had breached their employment obligations to its employees has been recorded. The contract management area took appropriate action, warned the supplier and the case was solved. [G4-LA16]
• Two cases of complaints related to labor practices, which have been solved, have been recorded. [G4-LA16]
• There were no complaints regarding discrimination, impact on society or cases of violation of indigenous people’s rights by the company.
  [G4-SO11; G4-HR3; G4-HR8]
• Two cases related to impact on human rights have been recorded. One has been solved in 2015 and the other is under analysis by the Ethics Committee. [G4-HR12]