Actions to Boost Integrity, Transparency and Fight Against Corruption

CAF—development bank of Latin America—, together with Grupo Faro, presented in Quito the 2019 Economy and Development Report (EDR) on “Integrity in public policies: Keys to preventing corruption,” focusing on one of the toughest challenges facing Ecuador and Latin America as a whole, i.e. pushing reforms for integrity in public policies. 

The report suggests that the efforts made to fight corruption thus far have been significant, but there is still a long road ahead to fill legal or regulatory gaps and to ensure effective implementation of the measures proposed. Thus, the research covers a wide range of areas of action that lead to the main objective, i.e. to maximize collective well-being in Latin America, fighting against corruption with effective public policies. 

Bernardo Requena, Vice President of Country Programs, referred to the importance of addressing the issue of corruption and CAF’s plans to provide a practical and useful analysis to understand that corruption undermines the state’s ability to provide quality public goods and services; compromises the productivity and growth of economies, discourages investment and innovation, and erodes trust in institutions.

Nino Cassanello, Under-Secretary-General of Against Corruption of the Presidency of Ecuador, referred to the Government’s transparency efforts. He noted that the government agency seeks to devise public policies and actions to facilitate reporting of acts of corruption and to coordinate cooperation between the different institutions.

Gustavo Fajardo, chief economist of the Directorate of Socio-Economic Research at CAF, revealed during the presentation of the study that according to the CAF survey, 51% of the population of Latin America considers corruption to be the main problem of our countries; that 1 in 4 people report that a public official has solicited a bribe from them in the last twelve months, and that 1 in 10 employers report that companies similar to their own pay bribes to be awarded contracts with the government.

According to the EDR, governments have implemented measures to fight against corruption on various fronts. First, relevant legal instruments have been fine-tuned and updated, while authorities have strived to build capacities of investigation and law-enforcement agencies. These regulatory efforts have been complemented by information access and open government initiatives that leverage new technologies, and have improved government control processes and accountability.

EDR 2019 puts forward a series of proposals to promote a comprehensive integrity agenda around a set of key issues that include:

1. Adopting decision protocols and formulas based on objective criteria.
2. Revamping audit systems and building investigation and law-enforcement capacities.
3. Promoting competitive and transparent electoral systems.
4. Professionalizing civil service and ensuring access to civil service is based on merit.
5. Improving information and dissemination systems on the actions of government and officials.
6. Empowering citizens and encouraging more vigilant attitudes.
7. Ensuring the operation of complaint and whistleblowing channels, and leveraging technology to create new spaces.
8. Strengthening institutions to prevent payment and offering of bribes by individuals and to encourage the adoption of compliance programs within companies.
9. Investing in better lobbying regulation, in the identification and management of conflicts of interest.
10. Improving decision-making processes in particularly vulnerable activities, such as the provision of public infrastructure.

After the presentation of the study, a panel was held featuring Sergio Guerra, chief economist at CAF; Ana Patricia Muñoz, director of Grupo Faro; María Sara Jijón, Under-Secretary-General for Governance of the Vice-Presidency of the Republic; Roque Sevilla, President of Grupo Faro; Pablo Dávila, coordinator of the Committee for Democratic Institutionalization, which focused on the main challenges faced by institutions regarding knowledge to combat corruption in Ecuador.

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