Breaking the Corruption Chain: Six National Action Plan Anti-Corruption Commitments

The values underlying OGP’s mission of making governments transparent, accountable and responsive to citizens stand as the pillars of any anti-corruption movement. Making governments commit to open government actions allows us to engage government squarely on developing concrete actions to help curb corruption. OGP takes a systematic approach to anti-corruption efforts – pushing not just for legal and policy mechanisms, but also the use of technology, strengthening civic participation, and responsiveness to citizen needs.

Here on International Anti-Corruption Day, I’d like to highlight six anti-corruption commitments by OGP participating countries as outlined in their National Action Plans:  

1.) Albania: Portal for denouncing corruption

A commitment in Albania’s 2014-2016 Action Plan aims to create an effective and easy-to use corruption complaints mechanism for citizens. The anti-corruption portal http://www.stopkorrupsionit.al, launched in February 2015, allows citizens to submit corruption complaints online and upload supporting evidence (photos, videos and other documents). Citizens can choose to disclose their identity or submit claims anonymously. The submitted complaint is then automatically channeled to the operational office and is handled through an issue tracking system. Authorized institutions have 30 days to review and resolve the complaint.

Since February, more than 7,000 reports have been submitted to the portal. The largest number of complaints are related to educationAccountability within the public education system is key to improving outcomes and attainment, and accountability is nearly impossible without transparent policies and opportunities for participation ... system, healthcare, police and judiciaryWhile a majority of open government reforms occur within the executive branch, OGP members are increasingly taking on commitments to increase the openness of the judicial branch. Technical specificati....

2.) Ukraine: Unprecedented access to public officials’ wealth information

Ukraine has committed to set up an e-declarations system with a single web portal for publication of all public officials’ asset declarations, ensuring unprecedented public access to information on public official’s wealth. The anti-corruption legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r... of Ukraine requires all public officials to file annually upon entering and leaving public office, a declaration of their and their close relatives’ assets, income and financial liabilities. The new e-declarations system would cover the declarations for up to 700,000-1,000,000 officials. Once the portal is functioning, it will help in detecting unjustified wealth and conflict of interest.

3.) UK: Cross government anti-corruption plan

This commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... was intended to create a strategic anti-corruption plan to bring coordination and coherence across government. The plan contains 66 separate commitments covering a range of national and international areas from lobbyingLobbying transparency allows the public to ensure that there is diversity of participation and contribution to public decision-making. Technical specifications: Policies and actions affecting lobbying... to money laundering. CSOs see the plan as a major milestone in the UK’s efforts to combat corruption at home and abroad.

4.) Tunisia:  Urban planning data                                        

To expose corruption risks in urban planning, resulting in dodging building standards and ineffective disaster responses, the government committed to publish basic geographical data, urban plans and information on land use. This data has been historically scarce in Tunisia. The Ministry of Equipment, House and Urban Planning has started developing the geographical information system and has published several digital resources, including plans for six territorial zones and 16 governorate atlases.

5.) Philippines: Participatory auditsInstitutional and legal frameworks are necessary for providing assurance of the integrity of financial information and of compliance with budgetary rules and procedure. Technical specifications: These... of government projects

The government committed to institutionalize civil society engagement for participatory audits of government projects. As of March 2015, three reports have been published, in the areas of disaster control, waste management and health. The fourth one on the building schools was elevated to a fraud audit after sensitive findings were uncovered by the citizen audit team.

6.) Georgia: Political party financial declarations

As part of its OGP action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen..., Georgia has published political party financing data in accessible, machine-readable formats. Information on income and expenditures of political parties as well as their contributors is used regularly by journalists and CSOs to detect corruption risks in political party funding.