Brazilian General Ombudsman

The General Ombudsman, an area with almost 10 years of existence, has undergone several changes in its operation, approved by the Executive Board in December 2018. The General Ombudsman function continues to be exercised by employees of the own board appointed by the Administrative Council, with a two-year mandate, extendable and with the guarantees inherent to the function.

One of the changes reduces the response time of the manifestations, which was before 30 working days, for 15 working days. Mechanisms will be implemented for the areas to send the information requested by the General Ombudsman in time.

Other amendments propose the assurance of secrecy and confidentiality by all who should know the manifestations, directly or indirectly; and the inclusion of conflict mediation as one of the attributions of the area.

To unify and strengthen external communication channels, we decided to transfer management of the Contact Us channel from the Itaipu website, from the Social Communication to the General Ombudsman from 2019 onwards.

In addition, satisfaction research was implemented for the complainant to evaluate the service of the canal. The updates meet the suggestions of the employees who participated in a survey applied in April to all the Ombudsman of the Eletrobras system. At Itaipu, 334 Brazilian employees responded.

As an institutional channel, it is the responsibility of the General Ombudsman to record the complaints and, after a screening, refer them, according to their classification, to the indicated organs. In case of lack of ethics, the referral is made to the Ethics Committee; disciplinary absences are forwarded to the management area; and finally, when it comes to lack of integrity, the referral will be made to the new Compliance Advisory. The complaints accepted are then taken to the legal area and, if proceeding, forwarded to the Brazilian General Director for deliberation. [102-34]

In total, the General Ombudsman received 352 manifestations, being 233 requests for information, 56 complaints/ criticism, 32 denouncement, 13 suggestions, six compliments and two considered not applicable. The remainder of the demonstrations (ten) is in the category other reasons. Among the complaints recorded in 2018, only five were considered as well founded, and none of them were classified as an act of corruption or discrimination. [205-3, 406-1]

With the revision of the norm, the General Ombudsman will present periodic reports to the director of the affected area by the manifestations and to the General Management, which shall also be included in the annual report to the Executive Board. In the documents, information about possible breaches of deadlines and breach of secrecy and confidentiality by the people who take notice and provide clarification to the demands of the General Ombudsman. This process may report critical concerns to the Council. [102-33]