A proposta da nova lei de falências e os efeitos na atividade pericial contábil

Abstract

The present research aims at identifying and analyzing the characteristics of the new Bankruptcy Law which shall produce significant effects to the forensic accounting activity. First, definitions and concepts about expertise and accounting expertise are presented, followed by a description of the historical evolution of the Accounting Expertise in Brazil, from 'The Opening of the Harbors' in 1808 to present days. Then, it is presented the international references about bankruptcy legislation in three developed countries (The United States, Germany and France) and in two developing countries (Argentina and Mexico), identifying the pertinent similarities among them on the accounting expert job and the Brazilian bankrupt rules. Next a discussion on the published articles in the national press, since 2002, about the project of the new Bankruptcy Law, still to be approved in the National Congress, has been carried out. It is followed by reports about the concordats, bankruptcies and bankrupt crimes according to the current Bankruptcy Legislation. In relation to the new Bankruptcy Law, first, an analysis about the Bill No. 4.376/93 approved by the Federal Congress in October 15, 2003 is presented, followed by the analysis of the project that has replaced it in the Senate, named Bill of the Congress No 71 (Substitutive) of 2003, identifying, in both text, not clear and technically precise items that express unfavorable characteristics that shall produce significant effects to the accounting expert activity. Moreover, for the results of these analyses to become more significant, and to reach the proposed aim of this research, the opinions of the accounting experts, specially related to Bankruptcy and concordats were heard and considered, aiming at gathering data about the characteristics of the new Bankruptcy Law, that shall cause impact on the accounting expert activity. In this sense, the methodological approach used in the present research is characterized, concerning type, as a descriptive research; concerning strategy, it is characterized as an indirect documental field research and bibliographic research in texts which provide support to achieve the proposed aim. The research was carried out with the accounting experts listed in the database of the Associação dos Peritos Judiciais do Estado de São Paulo (APEJESP)'s site of 2004, February. 50% of the sample was randomly selected, but 18 subjects of the sample returned the questionnaires. The answers were analyzed according to the descriptive statistics, using frequency charts. Through the analysis, it was concluded that the legal items in the project of the new Bankruptcy Law, in a not consistent and favorable way, shall produce significant effects in the accounting expert activity.