Anti-Corruption: Political Finance

Political Finance

Election campaigns cost money. Yet, secret political finance risks corruption. When donations and spending are opaque, it is unclear who is influencing decision makers or candidates for political office. According to International IDEA, “inadequately controlled political finance is one of the most widely exploited entry points for narrow private interests to exert undue influence over politics and political decisions.” Much work remains to ensure equal influence on decision makers.

Governments can curb undue influence with open government approaches by mandating the reporting and disclosure of income and spending, as well as strengthening the role of public monitoring to support the work of independent oversight bodies.

Key Terms The Evidence Reform
Guidance Active OGP
Partners Benchmarking
Data Guidance
& Standards

Open Gov Challenge: Anti-Corruption

With OGP’s 2023-2028 Strategy, OGP members are set to work toward a number of aspirational thematic reforms through the Open Gov Challenge. This section of the Open Gov Guide addresses Anti-Corruption,

Challenge prompt: Develop, strengthen, and/or implement a whole-of-government anti-corruption legislation, strategy or roadmap.

Actions and reforms that fit within the scope of this challenge should include at least one of the following areas:

Beneficial ownership
Open contracting
Political finance and asset and interest disclosure
Lobbying
Integrity systems at local level
Extractive industry transparency

Through this challenge, governments can improve policy, implementation and interoperability (including through OGP) across the areas above.

Key Terms

Definitions for key terms such as in-kind and non-financial contributions, political finance, and third-party campaigner.

In-kind and non-financial contributions: These contributions refer to non-monetary support that political parties and candidates receive. This could include donated or discounted goods and services, such as transport or lodging.
Political finance: According to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Vote for Freehandbook, political finance refers to the “raising and spending of money for political party operations and election campaigns,” which includes “money officially raised and spent by registered political parties and candidates [as well as] illegal activities such as vote buying and abuse of state (‘administrative’) resources, hidden media advertising, and campaign spending by non-official contestants.”
- Commonly used instruments to regulate political finance aim to ensure that donations and expenditures are transparent, clean money is donated through legitimate means, elections are contested on a level playing field, state resources remain neutral during the campaign, under-represented groups receive financial support, and oversight bodies have the powers and resources to enforce regulations.
Third-party campaigner: In many cases, non-official actors other than political parties and candidates become involved in campaigns. These include special interest groups and lobbyists. While these third parties vary from country to country, they are largely unregulated and play an ever-growing role in political campaigns. A similar term in political finance work for this group of actors is “non-contestant campaigner.”

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The Evidence

Open government approaches to implementing comprehensive political finance regulations can help identify possible abuse or fraud, increase trust, and support the political representation of under-represented groups.

Requiring political parties and candidates to regularly report their finances in a timely manner and open data format is essential to increase scrutiny and transparency. Government oversight agencies, civil society watchdog organizations, and members of the public can use such data to identify irregularities that indicate possible fraud or abuse. For example, public monitoring can help flag the use of political donations from illicit financial flows, malign foreign actors, and criminal groups to influence electoral outcomes and policy-making.
Linking political finance data to other key public data (such as company beneficial ownership or public procurement information) can reveal conflicts of interest and corruption in government decision-making. For example, politicians may unduly influence the awarding of public contracts to benefit companies that donate to their campaigns. Ensuring financing and contracting data are linked and standardized makes it possible to reveal such wrongdoing.
Transparent political finance, in the long run, can help increase public trust in government institutions. Where political finance regulations are strong, the ability of wealthy interests to disproportionately sway electoral outcomes is reduced. In turn, this gives the public confidence that each person’s vote counts.
When left unregulated, political financing tends to disadvantage under-represented groups, who struggle to raise the funds necessary to run a successful campaign. Women are especially affected by this funding gap. With transparent political finance data, governments can document such disparities to better target efforts to level the playing field.

Reform Guidance

The recommendations below represent reforms that national and local governments, representatives of civil society organizations, and others can consider for their action plans and the Open Gov Challenge. The reforms are categorized according to OGP’s principal values: transparency, civic participation, and public accountability. Reforms should be adapted to fit the domestic context, and involve and coordinate with other levels and branches of government.

Reforms across policy areas are also tagged by the estimated degree of difficulty in implementation. Though progress is often not linear, the recommendations have been categorized using these labels to give the reader a sense of how different reforms can work together to raise the ambition of open government approaches.

Recommended Reforms Key

OGP Values

Transparency: Transparency empowers citizens to exercise their rights, hold the government accountable, and participate in decision-making processes. Examples of relevant activities include the proactive or reactive publication of government-held information, legal or institutional frameworks to strengthen the right to access information, and disclosing information using open data standards.

Civic Participation: When people are engaged, governments and public institutions are more responsive, innovative, and effective. Examples of relevant initiatives include new or improved processes and mechanisms for the public to contribute to decisions, participatory mechanisms to involve underrepresented groups in policy making, and a legal environment that guarantees civil and political rights.
Public Accountability: Public accountability occurs when public institutions must justify their actions, act upon requirements and criticisms, and take responsibility for failure to perform according to laws or commitments. Importantly, public accountability means that members of the public can also access and trigger accountability mechanisms. Examples of relevant activities include citizen audits of performance, new or improved mechanisms or institutions that respond to citizen-initiated appeals processes, and improved access to justice.
Inclusion: Inclusion is fundamental to achieving more equitable, representative, and accountable policies that truly serve all people. This includes increasing the voice, agency, and influence of historically discriminated or underrepresented groups. Depending on the context, traditionally underrepresented groups may experience discrimination based on gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, age, geography, differing ability, legal, or socioeconomic status.

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Degree of Difficulty

Foundational: This tag is used for reforms that are the essential building blocks of a policy area. “Foundational” does not mean low ambition or low impact. These recommendations often establish basic legal frameworks and institutional structures.
Intermediate: This tag is used for reforms that are complex and often involve coordination and outreach between branches, institutions, and levels of government, with the public or between countries.
Advanced: This tag is used for reforms that close important loopholes to make existing work more effective and impactful. Specifically, “Advanced” reforms are particularly ambitious, innovative or close important loopholes to make existing work more effective, impactful or sustainable. They are often applied in mature environments where they seek to institutionalize a good practice that has already shown results.

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Branch of Government

Executive: The executive branch of government is responsible for designing, implementing, and enforcing laws, policies, and initiatives. It is typically led by the head of state or government, such as a president or prime minister, along with their appointed cabinet members. The executive branch’s functions also include overseeing the day-to-day operations of the government, managing foreign affairs, and directing the country’s armed forces. In democratic systems, the executive branch is accountable to the legislature and the electorate, with its powers and limitations outlined in the constitution or legal framework of the respective country.
Legislative: The legislative branch of government is responsible for making laws and regulations and overseeing the functioning of the government. It typically consists of a body of elected representatives, such as a parliament, congress, or assembly, which is tasked with proposing, debating, amending, and ultimately passing legislation. The legislative branch plays a crucial role in representing the interests of the people, as its members are elected to office by the public. In addition to law-making, this branch often holds the power to levy taxes, allocate funds, and conduct certain investigations into matters of public concern. The structure and powers of the legislative branch are usually outlined in a country’s constitution or legal framework, and it serves as a check on the executive and judicial branches to ensure a system of checks and balances within a state.

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Recommended Reforms

Policy Area	Recommendation	OGP Value	Degree of Difficulty	Government Branch
Foundations	Create or strengthen the legal framework for political finance reporting A comprehensive legal framework that clearly and unambiguously defines the campaign and financial activities of political parties, candidates, and third parties that require reporting and disclosure can support efforts to regulate and make political finance transparent. International IDEA and Transparency International recommend the following regulations to close loopholes and ensure detailed, regular reporting. Set a low threshold for political donations that requires reporting a donor’s identity. This requirement would limit anonymous donations. Require regular, timely updates on finances during and outside of election cycles. If possible, real-time reporting to a political finance oversight body (such as the electoral management body or EMB) can facilitate even stronger protections against abuse and provide information for voters to make informed choices. Digital tools can be used to support such real-time reporting. According to Transparency International, such a framework should set reasonable deadlines for campaign and non-campaign finance reporting. For campaigns, political parties, candidates, and third-party campaigners should submit both interim and final reports on income and spending, with final reports due shortly after a campaign period ends. For non-campaign spending, reports should be submitted at least annually. Create regulations to better trace spending on online campaign advertising (such as social media ads), digital consulting services, and cryptocurrency payments. As International IDEA found in its analysis of spending in the 2019 UK election, these three types of digital support are not properly captured by existing reporting requirements. Creating or strengthening requirements to itemize and disclose data on spending for political ads on social media platforms and digital consulting services is one strategy. Another is ensuring that cryptocurrency donations and other virtual assets are included as “things of value” in financing reports. Ensure conformity with the law through detailed reporting requirements. Regulations should require political parties, candidates, and third parties (where applicable) to report the following information to ensure conformity with the law. Itemization in reporting is especially important because it allows for an accurate classification of different services and purposes of spending. Oversight agencies must review itemization categories regularly, especially to ensure the lawful spending of earmarked public funds. Donations (including in-kind and non-financial support) Other sources of income, including public funding, use of state resources, and membership dues Campaign spending and other expenses, with a reasonable level of itemization (such as the amount, vendor, and date) and periodic updates to spending categories Assets and liabilities, including any conditions for loans Policy Area Foundations OGP Value Transparency Degree of Difficulty Foundational Government Branch Legislative	Transparency	Foundational	Legislative
Foundations	Create or strengthen an oversight body Create or strengthen the mandate for an independent oversight body to examine financial reports related to political party, candidate, and third-party revenue and spending. Such a body should have sufficient resources and power to perform this oversight function. These include the ability to audit and monitor financial disclosures and campaign activities, investigate suspicious cases, implement or initiate administrative sanctions when violations occur, and request criminal investigations. It should also be able to receive complaints from the public and report regularly on its enforcement activities to the general public. The oversight body’s mandate should include both election and non-election periods. Examples of sanctions include levying penalties—fines, the suspension of public funding, or the confiscation of unjustified assets—for non-compliance with political finance rules, such as failing to disclose revenue (including in-kind or non-monetary donations) and spending. Oversight bodies must be able to ensure that non-compliance with political financing regulations by political parties, candidates, campaigns, and third parties must be subject to proportionate and dissuasive sanctions. Anyone who receives sanctions should have judicial recourse to appeal sanctions, where applicable. Policy Area Foundations OGP Value Public Accountability Degree of Difficulty Foundational Government Branch Legislative	Public Accountability	Foundational	Legislative
Foundations	Encourage interagency cooperation to share and vet political finance data The political finance oversight body should be able to easily coordinate with relevant agencies, such as anti-corruption agencies, data protection agencies, lobbying registrars, and EMBs. Examples of coordination include running joint investigations into possible violations and creating a system for agencies to identify suspicious activity through a red-flag process. Making political finance data public—along with other government datasets like a tax registry, beneficial ownership database, or asset and interest disclosure database—by public officials can improve interagency cooperation. When key data is publicly available, agencies do not have to rely on signing a memorandum of understanding to share data. Policy Area Foundations OGP Value Public Accountability Transparency Degree of Difficulty Foundational Government Branch Executive	Public Accountability Transparency	Foundational	Executive
Transparency	Collect and publish high-quality political finance data in an open format on a centralized portal Collecting and publishing political finance data is more effective if the data is of high quality, structured, and presented in an open data format. Therefore, governments should require political parties, candidates, and third-party campaigners to include the following elements in their reports. The political finance oversight body should then publish the collected information with that level of detail on easily accessible platforms. Disaggregate revenue data by source, including donations, public funding, and membership dues. In-kind and non-monetary donations (broadly, “things of value”) should be included as part of reported revenue. Include detailed, clearly identifiable information on each donor, specifically: Donor’s first and last name Unique identifier for each donor Basic identifying information for each donor, such as the place of residence, occupation, and employer, in cases where it does not conflict with privacy protection laws Publish the dates and amounts of donations, including value estimates for in-kind and non-financial contributions. Publish information on an ongoing and timely basis, including before elections. Standardize supplier names with unique identifiers, rather than relying on manual entry, to better track campaign spending. The unique identifiers should be linked to tax identification numbers (or another national ID number) that are stored in a separate database. Linking unique identifiers to an existing identification system in this way allows for data validation. Ensure data is machine-readable, free to access, licensed for reuse, and downloadable in bulk. Policy Area Transparency OGP Value Transparency Degree of Difficulty Foundational Government Branch Executive Legislative	Transparency	Foundational	Executive Legislative
Transparency	Make data interoperable Use common identifiers across datasets related to political finance data to ensure that data in different databases can be used together, which increases accountability. Specifically, common identifiers should be used for natural persons (including candidates and donors) and legal persons (including third-party campaign groups). For example, linking political finance data with public procurement data can detect whether elected officials are awarding public contracts to campaign donors. Likewise, beneficial ownership data can be used to reveal hidden interests behind political donations. To leverage the benefits of interoperability, governments can create automatic verification systems to cross-check political finance data with online ad libraries, beneficial ownership databases, and tax registries. Policy Area Transparency OGP Value Transparency Degree of Difficulty Intermediate Government Branch Executive Legislative	Transparency	Intermediate	Executive Legislative
Transparency	Create a publicly available online political advertising repository: Governments can create a political advertising repository, which would publish information about political ads posted online, including on social media platforms. The repository itself should be easily accessible and free of charge. Private sector actors that publish political ads would be required to report information about political ads in a timely manner, including data about the value of such ads. Managing a repository that requires compliance from multinational organizations is complex. To address this, countries can support a regional system similar to the European Union regulation, which names the European Commission as the body responsible for creating and maintaining such a repository. Policy Area Transparency OGP Value Transparency Degree of Difficulty Advanced Government Branch Executive Legislative	Transparency	Advanced	Executive Legislative
Civic Participation	Provide training for political parties on political finance regulations Working with political parties to explain regulations and provide technical assistance to help them better capture their own political finance data can help increase compliance. For example, the oversight body could have an advisory unit to carry out such support. Collaborating with international organizations is another strategy to increase the effectiveness of such educational outreach. For example, the International Republican Institute (IRI) worked with North Macedonia’s Agency for Protection of Free Access to Public Information to train 23 political parties on political finance regulations. Policy Area Civic Participation OGP Value Civic Participation Degree of Difficulty Foundational Government Branch Executive	Civic Participation	Foundational	Executive
Civic Participation	Consult with data users Consult those using political finance data (especially researchers, journalists, and civil society representatives) in an advisory capacity to ensure data is useful, usable, and easily accessible on a digital platform. The EMB may choose to establish a permanent advisory or working group to advise on potential violations. Policy Area Civic Participation OGP Value Civic Participation Degree of Difficulty Intermediate Government Branch Executive Legislative	Civic Participation	Intermediate	Executive Legislative
Civic Participation	Conduct training and awareness raising Provide tailored training for different actors, including government officials (such as tax authorities and anti-corruption bodies) and members of the public (such as civil society organizations and journalists) on how to use political finance data. This is necessary to create a baseline understanding of what political finance data is, why it matters, and how to use it to combat corruption, campaign ethics violations, and other issues. Policy Area Civic Participation OGP Value Civic Participation Degree of Difficulty Intermediate Government Branch Executive	Civic Participation	Intermediate	Executive
Civic Participation	Collect and publish gender-disaggregated data to understand women’s political participation Political parties, candidates, and third-party campaigners should be required to provide gender-disaggregated data to political finance oversight institutions, which should publish this data regularly. Such data would highlight gaps in income and spending for women running for office, which can help governments create policies to address under-representation in political life. For example, governments can use such data to require political parties that receive public funding to earmark a portion of these funds for women candidates. Further disaggregating data to include information on other under-represented groups would similarly provide a way to track their political representation. Where a political finance oversight body does not exist, the government agency with that mandate should capture this data instead. Policy Area Civic Participation OGP Value Civic Participation Inclusion Degree of Difficulty Advanced Government Branch Executive	Civic Participation Inclusion	Advanced	Executive
Public Accountability	Create a complaint mechanism for the public Civil society and journalists have an especially important role to play in monitoring campaign revenue and spending to complement government oversight. Creating a complaint mechanism for the public provides a channel to direct the outcomes of such monitoring efforts, allowing these groups to flag suspicious cases of political financing for the oversight body to investigate. For example, Maryland (United States) has an online form where members of the public can submit a complaint to the State Board of Elections. For the US Federal Election Commission, complaints can be submitted via email or mail, while the Australian Electoral Commission accepts complaints online. Policy Area Public Accountability OGP Value Public Accountability Degree of Difficulty Intermediate Government Branch Legislative	Public Accountability	Intermediate	Legislative
Public Accountability	Ensure that whistleblower protections extend to those who report on misconduct related to political finance Establish and enforce protections for whistleblowers, who are often the ones to flag cases for further investigation and enforcement. Policy Area Public Accountability OGP Value Public Accountability Degree of Difficulty Intermediate Government Branch Executive Legislative	Public Accountability	Intermediate	Executive Legislative
Public Accountability	Create a public enforcement actions database Create a public database that tracks enforcement actions taken against political parties, candidates, or third-party campaigners for violations of political finance laws or regulations. Such a database should include criminal cases as well as civil and administrative penalties. For example, the US Federal Election Commission has a searchable database of closed cases that it investigated. The scope is limited to civil and administrative penalties. The United Kingdom Electoral Commission also has a database on investigations. Policy Area Public Accountability OGP Value Public Accountability Transparency Degree of Difficulty Advanced Government Branch Executive	Public Accountability Transparency	Advanced	Executive

Examples of Reforms from OGP and Beyond

The following examples are commitments previously made within or beyond OGP that demonstrate elements of the recommendations made above. Political finance regulations have remained relatively unexplored by OGP members, with only 18 members making a commitment in this area since OGP’s founding. However, over half of political finance commitments have been made in the past six years, which could speak to growing interest in this policy area.

OGP Reforms

AUSTRALIA New Legislation for Political Donations and Advertising: Committed to passing legislation to better regulate political donations and advertising. Such legislation may include lowering the threshold at which political donations must be disclosed, requiring real-time disclosure, and authorizing new powers for an independent body to enforce truth-in-advertising laws.
CROATIA Publication of Open Political Finance Data: Increased the transparency of political party and election financing by creating a digital system to monitor and publish financial disclosures, including the cost of election campaigns and referendum activities. GONG, a Croatian CSO, created its own website to convert the data into a searchable and machine-readable format.
MALAWI Creation of a Regulatory Body for Political Finance: Committed to creating an Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) to regulate the financial activities of political parties. One potential responsibility of the ORPP will be to work with the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Malawi Human Rights Commission, and civil society to develop guidelines and reporting templates.
NETHERLANDS New Amendments to Political Finance Law: Passed amendments to the Political Parties Financing Act that ban political donations from abroad, limit cumulative donations from one donor to €100,000 per year, lower the threshold for disclosing donations, and require near real-time reporting of large donations (€10,000 or more). All reported information, which includes the beneficial owner for donations from legal entities, is then published online.

Beyond OGP Action Plans

COLOMBIA App to Collect Political Finance Reports: Maintains the Cuentas Claras en Elecciones (Clear Accounts in Elections) app, which was first created by a civil society organization and given to the government. Nearly all political parties and candidates use the app to file standardized reports on their income and expenses, which are then uploaded onto a public, online database.
NORTH MACEDONIA Outreach to Political Parties on Finance Reporting: Hosted a training on political finance regulations in collaboration with the International Republican Institute (IRI), which led 13 parties to update their websites with such information. IRI also provided targeted assistance to the four largest parties, three of which published their data in an open format. Also committed to advancing this work in its most recent OGP action plan, which will aim to create a digital reporting system for political parties.
UNITED KINGDOM Public Funding for Candidates with Disabilities: Provided funding for candidates with disabilities to run for office in the May 2019 local elections under the EnAble Fund. The fund could be used for “sign language interpreters, assistive technology, a personal assistant to help with specific tasks, or taxi fares where other modes of transport were not appropriate.”

Who is working on this topic?

A

Argentina

Australia

C

Costa Rica

Croatia

G

Georgia

Guatemala

I

Indonesia

K

Kyrgyz Republic

L

Latvia

Lithuania

M

Malawi

Mongolia

N

Netherlands

North Macedonia

P

Panama

R

Romania

S

Serbia

Sri Lanka

This list reflects members with commitments in the “Political Integrity” policy area of the Data Dashboard.

Active OGP Partners

The following organizations have recently worked on this issue in the context of OGP at the national or international level. They may have additional insights on the topic. Please note that this list is not exhaustive. If you are interested in national-level initiatives, please contact research@opengovpartnership.org.

Benchmarking Data

The OGP 2023-2028 Strategy sets out the Open Gov Challenge and aims to provide clear benchmarks for performance through reliable data.

While benchmarks for individual countries and Open Gov Guide recommendations are not yet integrated, for this chapter, interested individuals may rely on the following data sets:

International IDEA maintains a Political Finance Database that tracks country-specific policies related to four topics: bans and limits on private income; public funding; spending; and reporting, oversight, and sanctions.
In collaboration with the OGP Support Unit and Transparency International, the Data for Development Network’s Global Data Barometer collects information on whether political finance data is available in open formats. Visualizations of this data are available on the OGP website.

Guidance & Standards

While the list below is not exhaustive, it aims to provide a range of recommendations, standards, and analysis to guide reform in this policy area.

The OGP Support Unit report Broken Links: Open Data to Advance Accountability and Combat Corruption includes a chapter on public procurement reform and the need for interoperability with other key political data. Similarly, the Support Unit and IFES co-authored a chapter in the Justice Policy Series with recommendations related to political finance.
NDI co-authored a report with Transparency International and the OGP Support Unit on how to combat covert foreign influence in political finance, which includes detailed recommendations related to banning anonymous donations, closing loopholes, and strengthening oversight.
The United Nations covers political finance in its Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) under Article 7.3, which states that states should consider “enhanc[ing] transparency in the funding of candidatures for elected public office and, where applicable, the funding of political parties.” However, according to International IDEA, there is no active mechanism in place under UNCAC to assess the degree of political finance transparency among the state parties to the convention.
The European Commission for Democracy through Law (known as the Venice Commission) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights created joint guidelines to prevent the misuse of public resources for election campaigns and political party activities. These guidelines draw on several other international frameworks to provide guidance, notably theGuidelines on Political Party Regulation, which is one of the most detailed guidelines on this topic.
The OSCE also has a handbook for campaign finance that covers common regulatory measures, such as contribution and spending limits, reporting requirements, and oversight mechanisms.
The Council of Europe established the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) to monitor countries’ compliance with the Council’s anti-corruption standards. Specifically, GRECO evaluates countries’ compliance with the Council of Europe’s rules against corruption in funding political parties and electoral campaigns.

In 2018, the Organization of American States published the Lima Commitment, which outlines regional commitments to use democratic governance to fight corruption. This set of commitments includes provisions related to political finance for political organizations and election campaigns.
The African Union adopted the Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption in 2003, which includes provisions related to political finance in Article 10 of the agreement.
Transparency International offers recommendations on how to address political finance transparency in OGP action plans. The organization also submitted guidance during the 10th UNCAC Conference of States Parties in 2023 on how to increase transparency and accountability in political finance in alignment with Article 7.3 of the convention.
International IDEA has several resources related to political finance reforms beyond its global database of regulations. This includes a policy brief on the importance of political finance transparency for political and economic security, a report on good practices to advance reforms in this policy area, and a design tool to help policy makers explore policy options for better political finance regulations.
IFES has similarly conducted a considerable amount of research in this policy area on topics such as legal and regulatory reform guidance, the role of civil society in monitoring political finance activities, compliance and enforcement strategies, and a white paper on political finance and gender equality. The organization also has an oversight toolkit to help oversight bodies enforce regulations and a handbook on how members of the public can monitor campaign finance.
The OECD published a report on the risks posed by political finance activities and the barriers to addressing them, which concludes with a framework of policy options to address these issues. It also published political party and campaign financing data in its 2023 Government at a Glance report. In 2017, the OECD Council updated its Recommendation on Public Integrity in 2017 to call for a holistic, risk-based approach to improving integrity in areas such as political finance, lobbying, and asset and interest disclosure.

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