Practitioners' Queries

10 queries:

The status of information on corruption in the forestry sector (Dec 2009)

Corruption in forestry undermines not only the profitability and sustainability of the world’s forest resources, but also weakens broader governance systems in countries where it occurs. Finding ways to deal with these issues is challenging due to the limited research in this area. The secretive nature of corruption also means that robust and comprehensive data on corrupt activities in the forest sector is difficult to generate. Where it is discussed, corruption is often considered primarily as an element of forest governance. This is despite evidence that corruption in the forestry sector may have impacts beyond this individual sector and may be a key factor in the inability of countries to deal with illegal logging. Though many forest-rich countries have appropriate laws and knowledge of forest science, this does not necessarily translate into good forest management practices. Part of the explanation for this appears to be that corruption impedes enforcement and implementation of suc

Overview of Corruption in Tanzania (May 2009)

Both past and current presidents of Tanzania have made strong commitments to fight corruption. Since the publication of the 1996 Warioba report assessing the state of corruption in Tanzania, the country has established a comprehensive body of regulations, laws and oversight institutions aimed at preventing, investigating and sanctioning corrupt practices. These include establishment of the Prevention of Corruption Bureau, a Good Governance Coordination Unit, and the Ethics Inspectorate Department. Although the public perceive corruption to have declined in recent years, possibly as a result of these efforts, both petty and grand forms of corruption continue to be present in political and administrative systems. Recent corruption scandals led to the resignation of the prime minister in early 2008. Enforcement remains limited, with anti-corruption institutions suffering from lack of staff, resources and coordination. Civil society remains to a large extent excluded from official policy

Political economy analysis of anti-corruption reforms (Dec 2008)

In an effort to understand factors affecting the political will for reforms, donors have started looking at the potential of using political economy analysis to analyse the underlying context of developing countries, factors and processes that promote or block governance reforms. Initiatives such as DFID’s Drivers of Change or SIDA`s Power Analysis reflect this emerging trend. In the field of governance and anti-corruption, an increasing number of studies supported by the World Bank, the Netherlands or USAID adopt a similar approach to understanding the formal and informal dimensions of economic and political processes that are likely to affect the success of anti-corruption reforms. While these studies have generated a wealth of knowledge, the challenge remains to incorporate the findings into operational work and use them to inform the development of effective anti-corruption strategies.

The effectiveness of donor responses to corruption in deteriorating environments (Dec 2008)

Exiting a country abruptly for governance-related reasons without proper planning and consultation can have a disastrous impact on implementing agencies, beneficiaries and bilateral relations. Case studies indicate that using aid conditionality to support anti-corruption reform has also failed to induce sustained change due to lack of ownership of reforms. As a result, donors are increasingly turning to corruption risk-mitigating strategies, such as reinforcing internal controls, adjusting aid modalities to corruption risks and supporting longer term, broader anti-corruption reforms. The impact of such approaches varies greatly across countries, due to country specific and contextual factors, illustrating the need to target responses to corruption deteriorating environments strategically according to the local circumstances. Donor coordination greatly enhances the impact and credibility of responses to governance deteriorating situations.

Donor responses to corruption in deteriorating governance environments (Apr 2008)

There have been some examples of donors disengaging, suspending or reducing aid to a country on account of corruption, human rights abuses or undemocratic regimes. These cases have been extensively covered by the media, such as in Zimbabwe, Chad, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. As yet, no joint response has been explicitly formulated by the donor community on whether/how to engage with countries where governance deteriorates. In practice, while there is a growing consensus on the need to maintain sustained engagement in fragile states, donors are faced with the challenge of identifying appropriate forms of engagement. Engagement through civil society organisations or UN agencies remains an option with the view to bypassing corrupted government structures.

National Anti-Corruption Strategy in Tanzania (Apr 2007)

Tanzania has demonstrated and sustained its commitment to fight corruption since the early days of independence, as indicated by the launching of a National Anti-Corruption Strategy in December 2006. However, efforts to date haven’t always yielded the expected impact. The challenge is now to build on strengths (political leadership and ownership of reforms) and opportunities (country commitment to regional and international treaties such as the UNCAC), while promoting effective participation of civil society and coalition building at the implementation stage of the process.

International experience with asset declarations (Sep 2006)

What is the international experience with the asset/wealth declaration of public officials? Are there any good practices? Are there any IT-solutions for managing and publishing? Which institutions are generally in charge of managing the data?

Pointers to good anti-corruption strategies (incl. in-house) (Oct 2004)

What should a good anti-corruption corporate strategy consist of? And do you have a definition on "corporate strategy"?

National Action Plans to combat Corruption (with focus on experience in Sub-Saharan Africa) (May 2004)

Could you give me examples of good National Action Plan to combat corruption, preferably from Sub Saharan Africa. I would be very thankful if you could give me a short reply in a few days.

Corruption within the tax system (Jul 2003)

Corruption in the tax system has been found rampant in many countries, resulting in reduction of tax revenues, increased income inequality and diminished capacity of the state to fulfil its obligations. Indicators of corruption in the tax system relate either to the institutional context or to staff related issues. Institutional factors such as excessive income tax, red tape and inadequate enforcement of regulations are factors increasing the likelihood of corruption in the tax system. Complex tax regulations create opportunities for public officials to exercise discretionary powers while bribe payers seek to evade tax. Specific measures that have been promoted as likely to reduce public officials’ opportunities for corruption include the standardisation of procedures, simplification of the tax system, professionalism of tax services, reform of the incentive structure and establishment of semi-independent revenue authorities.