On November 12, 2019, through Resolution 36/2019, the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) published the Supplementary Guide for the implementation of Compliance Programs in Small and Medium Enterprises (“PyMEs” for its Spanish translation).

The aforementioned resolution adds to the guidelines published by the OA in 2018 for the design, implementation and evaluation of Compliance Programs within the framework established by the Corporate Criminal Liability Law No. 27,401.

This Complementary Guide for the implementation of Compliance Programs aims to provide practical tools and instruments that can be applied by PyMEs, considering the specific characteristics of their activities. This is a joint work with the Secretariat of Entrepreneurs and PyMEs of the Production and Labor Ministry.

It is especially important since, from the effective date of Law 27,401, legal persons, including small and medium-sized companies, are responsible for certain crimes related to corruption in which they may have intervened, or that are committed in the name, interest or benefit of the company. That same law promotes that legal entities implement Compliance Programs, as a condition to participate in certain contracts with the National Government, or as a parameter of graduation of an eventual penalty. The existence of a Compliance Program is also an element that, under certain conditions, can lead to the exemption of the criminal sanction.

The OA received and incorporated contributions from compliance experts, stakeholders and the general public, through the public consultation platform of the Ministry of Modernization Government.

The Complementary Guide for PyMEs can be checked on the OA’s website.

For further information, do not hesitate to contact Eugenia Pracchia and/or María Emilia Cargnel.