Oversight of National Integrity Standards (JO0068)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? There continues to be a poor understanding of national integrity standards for the prevention of corruption among public administration, the private sector, and CSOs. In addition, there is lack of knowledge about how to enhance these standards in their scope of work and practices, and how to build an integrated and long-term approach to enhance these standards within their action plans to ensure compliance with such standards by all employees including senior staff. Furthermore, citizens’ understanding of JIACC’s work mechanism, role, and their knowledge of how to report cases of corruption is still modest. JIACC provides the online platform “Bekhedmetkom” (At Your Service) for the public to file complaints about instances of corruption. However, the number of platform users is still low. This may be attributed to fear and lack of confidence in the complaints handling mechanism. However, the main reason is ascribed to lack of awareness of platform availability.

What is the commitment? Enhance integrity at the national level and increase the interaction of citizens and various sectors with the mechanisms available to combat and report corruption. This commitment is relevant to the updated National Integrity and Anti-Corruption Strategy (2020- 2025).

How will the commitment contribute to solve this public problem? The commitment will 1. Entrench national integrity standards and increase the level of public administration and citizen compliance with these standards so that the language is unified among the JIACC, and all members of society are able to contribute to positively preserving public money and building trust in state institutions. 2. Demonstrate the Commission’s openness to all segments of society. 3. Increase awareness of JIACC’s mandate and the role it performs. 4. Encourage the public’s role in accountability, strengthening the partnership between the JIACC, CSOs, and the private sector for more integration in oversight work. 5. Increase awareness among public administration leaders of the importance of integrity standards and their activation.

How is this commitment relevant to OGP values? 1) This commitment is relevant to the value of civic participation as it adopts a participatory approach in developing government policies and procedures related to anti-corruption. 2) It is relevant to the value of access to information as it includes the dissemination of information on the various stages of the commitment implementation. In addition, the JIACC, through its annual report, disseminates information regarding the number of complaints received and works to cover all its activities and achievements on its website and social media platforms. 3) It is also relevant to the value of public accountability as it enhances citizens’ follow-up on corruption cases and allows them to file complaints about corruption, whether in the public or private sectors and among CSOs. In addition, it contributes to strengthening the role of government institutions in adopting a kind of measure that combats corruption within their working systems. It also enhances the role of the regulatory bodies over the private sector and CSOs to ensure the integrity of these two sectors to combat corruption therein. 4) Finally, this commitment is relevant to the value of technology and innovation for openness and accountability. It encourages citizens to combat corruption by using the online platform “Bekhedmetkom” and its mobile application to submit complaints JIACC.

Additional information Milestone Activity with a Verifiable Deliverable Starting date of implementation Ending date of implementation

1. Enhancing compliance with national integrity standards in the public sector by: 1.1 Reviewing the general framework and work methodologies of the government compliance matrix for public integrity in the public sector. Also, reviewing the follow-up mechanism of the recommendations reached through consultations with stakeholders from the public sector, civil society, and experts based on international best practices 1/1/2022 30/9/2022 2.1 Capacity-building of the Compliance Department on these methodologies to be utilized in the evaluations that will commence in 2023. 1/10/2022 30/12/2022 3.1 Utilize the methodology and matrix that has been developed in conducting the evaluation of the targeted ministries and institutions that will commence in 2023 and issue relevant reports. 1/1/2023 30/6/2025 4.1 Incorporating the concept of integrity into the implementation plans of the governmental institutions through the recommendations reached in the compliance reports. Therefore, these institutions are obligated to develop activities to implement these recommendations in their implementation plans and allocate the related budget. This will be regarded as part of the responsiveness to the compliance matrix, which will be followed up. 1/1/2024 30/6/2025

2. Enhancing compliance with good governance and combating corruption in the private sector and CSOs by: 1.2 Developing a compliance matrix for good governance and anti-corruption, particularly for regulatory bodies, over the private sector and CSOs, to ensure their compliance with the principles of governance, transparency, and disclosure, as well as designing a mechanism to follow up with recommendations reached through consultations with stakeholders from the public sector, civil society, and experts, based on international best practices. 1/1/2022 30/9/2022 2.2 Capacity-building of the Compliance Department on these methodologies to be utilized in the evaluations that will commence in 2023. 1/10/2022 30/12/2022 3.2 Utilize the methodology and matrix that has been developed for conducting the evaluation of ministries and regulatory institutions over the private sector and CSOs that will commence in 2023 and issue relevant reports. 1/1/2023 30/6/2025 4.2 Incorporating the concept of integrity into the implementation plans of the governmental regulatory bodies over the private sector and CSOs through the recommendations reached in compliance reports. Therefore, these bodies are obligated to develop activities to implement these recommendations in their implementation plans and allocate the related budget. This will be regarded as part of the responsiveness to the compliance matrix, which will be followed upon. 1/1/2024 30/6/2025

3. Raising awareness and governmental and non-governmental capacity on integrity standards and practices, combating corruption, and promoting a culture of reporting on corruption cases through: 1.3 Launching a training platform within the Innovation and Creativity Center at the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission targeting the government sector, civil society, the private sector, regulatory bodies, and universities. The purpose of the platform is to enhance integrity, combat corruption, create experts in the field, disseminate information and knowledge related to the fight against corruption, and introduce some subjects into the Institute of Public Administration’s materials. 1/1/2022 30/12/2023 2.3 Incorporating the concept of public integrity in training programs for senior leadership and new officials within the Institute of Public Administration. 1/1/2022 30/12/2023 3.3 Encouraging employees from the public sector, the private sector, CSOs, and all citizens to use the “Bekhedmetkom” platform via the anti-corruption complaints window as well as the mobile application for submitting complaints to JIACC. This will be done through high-quality campaigns and meetings with various stakeholders to enhance citizens’ trust in the platform and encourage them to use it in a way that enhances accountability and combats corruption. 1/1/2022 30/6/2025 4.3 Forming a committee of Senior Management/ Secretary-Generals from various ministries and governmental bodies, where biannual and periodic meetings are organized (as the need arises) to keep them apprised of the methodologies of the compliance assessment, JIACC reports, and evaluation results. Also, to gain their support to public sector employees to enhance the integrity and act responsively to JIACC recommendations. 1/1/2023 30/6/2025

Action Plan Review

Commitment 5. Enhance Integrity at the National Level

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest