Private Interest Politics Silke Pfeiffer Transparency International Global Forum V South Africa April 2007

Risk Map Shortcomings in the Political Party Funding Systems Weaknesses in the control and prevention of conflicts of interest Weakness of institutional channels for the participation of, and the interaction with interest groups Lack of expertise and technical support of & for members of Parliament Lack of access to information Weaknesses in the systems and institutions responsible for economic control and regulation Assessing the risks related to the undue influence of private interests in the policy-making process (Results from two studies in Latin America) Absence of basic rules on lobbying Lack of integrated policies and culture of social corporate responsibility Absence of independent mechanisms of social control

Objectives of CRINIS Project Benchmarking Identifying weaknesses and strengths of PF systems by means of quantitative index, with respect to transparency and accountability in ordinary party and campaign activities. Advocacy Engage with different stakeholders in order to promote necessary reforms in PF systems and/or implement and enforce norms already in place. The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency & Accountability in Political Finance in Latin America

Basic Information about the project Partners: Transparency International and The Carter Center Project coordination in São Paulo/Brazil First round of countries studied: Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala 8 local research teams (one expert + junior researchers) First round of research from October 2005 to May 2007 Funded by: USAID, BID, DANIDA The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America

Index of transparency in each country 10 dimensions evaluate Dimensions & stages of transparency 1. BookkeepingState and social control 2. Reporting to Oversight Agency 7. Prevention 3. Comprehensiveness of reporting 8. Sanctions 4.Depth of reporting 9. State oversight 5. Reliability of reporting 10. Civil society oversight 6. Public disclosure Legal norms Practices The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America

Dimensions of benchmarking diferent moments/actors in political life The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America Ordinary party finance Party finance during campaigns Candidate’s campaign finance

Dimensions … (cont.) A. Stages of transparency The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 1.Internal bookkeeping Are parties ready for sound financial management? 4 indicators on law and practice: Mandatory bookeeping, regularity, accounting capacity,

Dimensions … (cont.) A. Stages of transparency The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 2. Rendering accounts to EMB What kind of legal requirements for rendering accounts exist and what happens in practice? 15 indicators on law and practice: mandatory, standardized format, database, regularity, compliance in practice, reporting of donors, vendors, media companies

Dimensions … (cont.) A. Stages of transparency The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 3. Disclosing information to the public Do citizen have access to these data by law and what happens in practice? 41 indicators on law and practice: Public funding disclosure by law, private funding disclosure by law, regularity, channel of disclosure, access in practice, social context of disclosure

Dimensions … (cont.) B. Data characteristics The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 4. Comprehensiveness of reporting What is covered by a country’s reporting system? 11 indicators on law and practice: Private donations cash, in kind, services, loans, discount, real state, investments, fundraising, self-funding; public subsidies cash, indirect, tax exemption; expenses with public funding, private funding

Dimensions … (cont.) B. Data characteristics The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 5. Depth of reporting Are data detailed enough for thorough analysis? 17 indicators on law and practice: Date, value of each donation, perfect identification of donors; date, value and vendor of each expenditure

Dimensions … (cont.) B. Data characteristics The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 6. Reliability of reporting Are the numbers accurate? 13 indicators on practice: Individual and corporate donations, services, goods, self funding, discounts, loans, expenses

Dimensions … (cont.) C. Legal and social control The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 7. Preventive measures What institutional mechanisms are in place to foster integrity of accounting practices? 8 indicators on law: Single bank accounts, deposit mandatory, cash transactions prohibited, EMB’s right to inspect bank accounts, anonymous donation prohibited, official time frame for campaigns

Dimensions … (cont.) C. Legal and social control The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 8. Sanctions What kind of sanctions are provided by law and implemented in practice? 10 indicators on law and practice: Civil responsibility, fines, retention of public subsidies, criminal responsibility, political rights suspended laws enforced in practice, sound legislation, sound sanctions

Dimensions … (cont.) C. Legal and social control The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 9. State oversight How independent, well equipped and efficient is EMB? 8 indicators on law and practice: EMB independence, workload, performance

Dimensions … (cont.) C. Legal and social control The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America 10. Civil society oversight How active is civil society? 10 indicators on practice: CSOs on political finance exist, are visible, scope of activities, independence, experience; peer oversight exists

Data Sources: Evaluation of legislation and legal norms: official data (questionnaire to be completed by research teams with information from analysis of current legislation) Analysis of the country context: non-official data (questionnaire to be completed by each team leader/ expert in the country, with information obtained from actors involved in PF) Accountability practices: Survey with stakeholders (such as party accountants, MoPs, electoral judges and auditors, NGOs...): total of 40 questionnaires distributed among 6 areas of expertise Field tests on access to information by citizens: 6 tests undertaken by a group of citizens (volunteers) and by the research teams The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America

Data sources … (cont.) (C)Empirical tests on accessing data research team (n=3) responsiveness: letters to 3 officeholders; 3 parties, 5 companies and 2 service providers, requesting information on PF (60 days time frame) citizen, students and jornalists (n=30) access to specific data on political finance, using diferent channels of information (from visit to EMB to internet) (5 days time frame) The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America

Data sources for benchmarking (each country) (A)Research team (n=3) provide data on legal framework and on accounting practices (2 questionnaires) The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America

Data sources … (cont.) (B)Relevant stakeholders (n=40) party accountants and elected officeholders auditors and heads of EMBs donors CSO activists (6 questionnaires, one for each group) providing information on practice in political finance The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America

Ordinary Campaign Campaign Party Party Candidate AVERAGE Finance Finance Finance bookkeeping reporting disclosing comprehensiveness reporting depth reporting reliability reporting prevention sanctions state oversight institutions civil society oversight AVERAGE TOTAL COUNTRY SCORE CRINIS benchmarking Example for country

The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America CRINIS benchmarking Preliminary results

CRINIS benchmarking Preliminary results, 2 countries

Innovative aspects of CRINIS project 1.Focus on transparency rather than political finance at large 2.Dataset covering law and practice 3.Practice measured by accessing official data, expert information and empirical tests 4.Benchmarking covering party and campaign finance 5.Benchmarking broken down into 10 diferent dimensions of political finance 6.Open source aproach, allowing access to benchmarking system (How do indicators add up to scores?) 7.Indicators translate into orientation for advocacy (what could be done?) 8.More than an index: benchmarking and advocacy are the two pilars of CRINIS The “CRINIS” PROJECT Assessing Transparency in Political Finance in Latin America