The bill follows years of international pressure for Brazil to honor commitments it made when it signed United Nations and OECD conventions on corruption.
Under the legislative proposal, a company caught bribing domestic or foreign public officials would pay a fine of 1-30 per cent of its gross income and could even be shut down, the president’s office said in a statement.
Currently companies caught paying off domestic or foreign officials are simply banned from bidding for future government procurement contracts.
The bill would also prevent individuals convicted of fraud from founding a new company and be able to again bid for government contracts.
Officials of some multinational companies operating in Brazil privately complain that they are at a disadvantage because local companies are not bound by tough anti-corruption laws.
