Coordinated actions by the Polícia Federal, the Controller General’s Office and other agencies for investigation and control are sending the corrupt to prison and recovering stolen public funds

With Lula and Dilma, the fight against corruption became, for the first time in history, a permanent activity of the State. Previously, newspaper headlines reporting scandals were rare, because the illegal activities were almost always swept under the carpet or hidden away in a file drawer. And the public almost never knew. But beginning with Lula's arrival to the presidency in 2003, the prevention and fight against corruption became a priority, by means of coordinated activities among various agencies of the federal government, carried out with transparency and with the encouragement and participation of civil society.

Effective measures began to be taken and have not stopped yet. Some of these are:

• The creation of the Federal Comptroller General (CGU);

• The strengthening, modernization and independence of the Polícia Federal;

• The autonomy of the Federal Public prosecutor, chosen from the ranks, by direct vote, becoming no longer a personal decision of the President of the Republic;

• The creation of the Transparency website;

• The Access to Information Law;

• The increase in the activities of the Attorney General's Office (AGU) in processing illegal activities and the recovery of stolen funds;

• The creation of the “Super Tax Office” to better combat fraud and income tax evasion;

• The firm activities of the Financial Activities Control Committee (COAF), and monitoring atypical banking activity that could indicate money laundering or corruption of the public agencies;

• The restructuring of the Economic Defense (Consumer Protection) Agency (CADE) and strengthening its activities against cartels; 

• The enactment of laws that punish that punish corrupt corporations.

The results were not long in coming, written in large headlines. Investigations, arrests, conspiracies and cartels, high-level public servants punished, millions and millions of reais recovered and returned to the public coffers. Concrete activities fighting corruption became public, sharing space with the accusations that were often precipitous and wrong - because the press is subject to error and often condemns people before all the facts are known, with people that are later shown to be innocent - as a recent case has shown.

The important thing is that there is freedom of the press, more so than has often been the case in Brazil. And for the first time in history, Brazil has institutions built on a solid foundation, with the independence to be able to act in defense of the State and Society with express orders not to file investigations away in a drawer or sweep scandals under the carpet.