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As Claras
Transparência Brasil
Brazil

The Problem

Together with other tools pioneered by Transparencia Brasil, As Claras aims at collecting information held by the State and presenting, aggregating and analysing it before the public. As Claras is an access to information tool that have been instrumental to enhance the understanding of how things work in the political financing theatre. It is a world-pioneering instrument that could be adopted in other countries to foster citizens’ participation in politics.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
As Claras (Above the Board, address www.asclaras.org.br) is an Internet-based election financing database, focused on who finances whom. It gathers official data from the Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) and presents them in a easy-to-use way. As Claras allows selecting specific candidates, states, parties and donors. The information is presented in an user-friendly format, including cross-referenced many different tables and graphical representations. Users can assess which declared interests support candidates/parties, how much success a donor had had in its campaign investments (eg, how many of the candidates financed by such donor were actually elected), study correlations between vote and money and other analyses. Currently, the available data correspond to the general elections of 2002 and to the municipal elections of 2004. In early 2007, data about the campaigns for the 2006 general elections will be incorporated into the database.
As Claras is mainly used by the media to report on political financing. NGOs and other interested parties also consult the information conveyed.
As far as we know, As Claras is a pionnering tool not found in other countries. It is a valuable mechanism to enhance citizens’ participation in politics.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
2003 – First publishing of 2002 election finance data
2005 – Publishing of 2004 election finance data
February, 2007 – Estimated publishing of the 2006 elections finance data.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Brazilian regulations about political financing is relatively new, dating from 1994. The electoral law requires that all candidates and political parties disclose donations (and expenditures) to the electoral authority. Although the corresponding data has been deposited with the electoral authority since the 1994 general elections, it was only in 2002 that it was normalized in electronic form and published in the Internet. However, the information published by the electoral authority is presented in raw form, not being amenable to aggregations and analyses. As Claras treats and presents the information in a much more useful way.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
As Claras has as its main objective making available in-depth information about what interests were in play in an election and what on its aftermath. Who financed whom is important to understand the interests in play. Checking the patterns of financing against the performance of elected officials is very important to detect possible misconductions. Thus, if a mayor systematically grants contracts to former donors, exhibiting the fact might prompt investigations about the integrity of the procurement processes that led to such contractings. The possible fact that parlamentarians or entire party or regional benches systematically vote according to the interests of their donors is an information of relevant public interest. Fostering the dissemination of such information is the project’s fundamental aim.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The database was published on the Web, because it makes it at the same time more useful, easy to use and widely available than in a book, for example. Journalists use extensively the database and publish the information in their reporting. Transparencia Brasil also issue in-depth studies on patterns of financing, in the form of academic papers, articles to other periodicals and more extensive reports.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
As Claras was instrumental to bring information about political financing to a wider public, especially indirectly, because of the use the press makes of the information conveyed by the tool.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
As Claras has matured into a stable platform that requires only moderate resources to maintain. As it happens with any tool that is based on national specificities, it is not directly transferable to other environments. However, the principles, the types of analyses provided and all other conceptual elements are easily transferable both to NGOs and to national electoral authorities, provided that: 1) The country’s regulatory framework requires that candidates and parties disclose the donations they receive; 2) That such information is centrally kept; 3) That the information is provided and maintained in standardized electronic format.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Developing the As Claras project exhibit many imperfections in the Brazilian operation of the disclosure regulations. For instance, in Brazil every firm and every person has a registry number issued by the Finance Ministry. This number is used to uniquely identify the firm/person. The electoral regulations require that this number is informed together with the name of the donor and the amount donated. However, the electoral authority does not check whether or not the information provided is consistent (at least by checking if the verication digits associated with theses registry numbers are correct). As a result, the information provided by parties and candidates include many errors (accidental or on purpose). This gave rise to suggestions by Transparencia Brasil to the electoral authority (hitherto not adopted) to tighten up their routines.
As Claras also exhibited with sharp colors a known defect of the Brazilian electoral finance regulations, namely, the fact that party finances are kept separated from electoral finances. This allows for triangulations whereby parties, candidates and donors “hide” the path from donor to candidate: The donor gives money to a party, and the party gives money to a candidate’s campaign. Since this is done wholesale, it becomes impossible to actually link a donor to the candidates with whom the money finally ended up. Attempts to change the regulations that lead to this have as yet prove unsuccessful.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Transparência Brasil
Institution Type:   Non-Governmental Organization  
Contact Person:   Claudio Weber Abramo
Title:   Executive Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   55 11 3062-3436
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   crwa@transparencia.org.br  
Address:   Rua Francisco Leitão, 339/122
Postal Code:   05414-025
City:   São Paulo
State/Province:   São Paulo
Country:   Brazil

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