Brazil’s ANA has changed the timetable for proving one governance requirement for sanitation regulators. Fixed, staggered board mandates will enter the annual verification procedure in 2028, while the wider governance standard remains in place.
Brazil’s national water and sanitation agency, ANA, has adjusted the timetable for demonstrating one part of its governance standard for subnational sanitation regulators. Resolution 305, dated October 2 and published on October 5, changes the treatment of fixed, staggered mandates for members of a regulator’s governing board.
Which Requirement Changed
Article 41 of Reference Standard 4/2024 lists the arrangements used to demonstrate adoption of the governance standard. Its second item concerns fixed board mandates that do not coincide, last no more than five years and do not permit reappointment. Staggering means board membership does not all reach its endpoint together, providing an institutional arrangement for continuity between appointments.
The amendment places both this mandate requirement and the separate staffing requirement within a four-year proof period. The previous wording gave that longer period to the staffing provision alone. The two subjects remain distinct: one concerns the terms of decision-makers, while the other concerns a regulator having its own personnel recruited through public competitions or selection processes.
When the Proof Will Be Checked
ANA specifies that proof of the board-mandate requirement will be required from the annual verification procedure in 2028. It will not be considered in the 2026 or 2027 procedures. That is a precise change to the verification timetable, rather than a statement that every governance obligation has been deferred.
The underlying article also covers collective decision-making, own-source funding, transparency, annual reporting, publication of deliberative records, participation before important decisions and an ombudsman function. Those subjects help explain why a narrow timing amendment should be recorded against its exact provision instead of being treated as general relief from the standard.
For a regulator organizing its compliance work, the immediate task is to preserve that distinction in its timetable and evidence records. The resolution changes when the specified proof enters ANA’s annual procedure; it does not demonstrate that an individual regulator already meets the requirement, or establish an improvement in water or sanitation services.
Take-Out
Keep the postponed proof requirement separate from the rest of the governance standard. Regulators still need to track which duties apply, what evidence demonstrates them and when each check begins.
Questions and answers
What readers should know
- What does Resolution 305 change?
- It changes the proof timetable for the board-mandate requirement in Article 41, item II, of Reference Standard 4/2024.
- When will that proof enter annual verification?
- From the 2028 procedure, with the requirement excluded from the 2026 and 2027 procedures.
- What does the mandate rule require?
- Fixed, staggered terms of at most five years, without reappointment.
- Is staffing the same requirement?
- No. Having own personnel recruited through public competitions or selection processes is a separate item.
- Does this defer the whole governance standard?
- No. The amendment identifies the specific requirement and its verification timetable.
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