Some thoughts on accountability and integrity James Donovan Public Financial Management Advisor Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Stockholm

Sida’s Anti-Corruption Rule (2005) Public Finance Management In Development Co-operation: A Manual for Sida Staff (2007)

Anti-corruption at Sida Corruption is a major issue in popular support for Swedish development cooperation Corruption is fundamentally and profoundly anti-poor Never accept! Always act! Always report!

How Sida fights corruption Preventing corruption and reacting to suspected corruption in Sida- supported programs and projects Global, regional and bilateral support to explicit anti-corruption programs and projects: –Transparency International, –United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), –Vietnam’s diagnostic study of corruption, new anti-corruption law, and National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee Global, regional and bilateral support to other elements of national integrity systems: –PEFA at the World Bank Institute, –Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI), –parliamentary oversight, supreme audit institutions, tax administration…

National integrity systems Anti-corruption laws, regulations, strategy, agencies Public administration: –the civil service –public financial management –public sector oversight: accountants, internal audit, Ministry of Finance, external audit/supreme audit institution, parliament Private sector: –Accountants –Audit –business and professional associations –stock markets

National integrity systems 2 Public debate: –opposition political parties –Media –civil society Multi-party democracy: –replacing leaders –but financing electoral campaigns Principles: –“checks and balances”/independent, competing public institutions, –transparency, –accountability

Corruption in Sweden 6 of 163 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2006, behind Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore Public sector well functioning and responsive to citizens’ complaints Respected and independent civil service High degree of transparency –Principle of Public Information in the constitution –semi-autonomous government agencies, formally steered, formally reporting, publicly accountable –relatively few state-owned (parastatal) enterprises

Sida’s anti-corruption hypothesis Personal morality versus well-functioning national integrity system Anti-corruption laws, regulations, strategy, agencies are not enough Many interdependent elements of a national integrity system Years of effort to improve But things can improve significantly before everything is in place, e.g., “name and shame”

Sida’s anti-corruption hypothesis 2 Possible lessons from Sweden: –transparency, –public debate, –accountable public organizations, –public administration reform including civil service reform and public financial management reform

You are involved in historic processes Those of us who believe in the public sector must make higher demands on the public sector