Countering Corruption in the East Asia and Pacific region
The World Bank is supporting Procurement Watch, a civil society organization in the Philippines that promotes direct participation and engagement of citizen groups in procurement monitoring initiatives.
December 9, 2009 — The World Bank recognizes that corruption impedes development, justice, good governance, and growth. That is why the Bank is playing a growing role in advancing the anti-corruption agenda in East Asia and the Pacific. The Bank works in partnership with regional organizations, governments, and civil society to strengthen capacity, improve policy, and encourage greater transparency.
The World Bank uses a number of approaches to improve state performance, including capacity building of national, independent anti-corruption agencies, and collaboration with regional networks like the Asian Development Bank or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on anti-corruption policy. The Bank also works with community-based organizations to enhance citizen participation in monitoring and oversight of anti-corruption activities.
Strategic engagement with anti-corruption agencies in Indonesia, Mongolia, and Thailand
facilitating professional and leadership training to KPK staff
providing technical assistance to improve KPK’s communications strategy and action plan;
and publishing recent research findings on public sector corruption through the Indonesia Public Sector Integrity 2008 report.
In Mongolia, the Bank has supported the country's effort to adopt asset and income declaration legislation and strengthen its enforcement. As a result, this collaboration helps reduce corruption and increase public accountability as well as public trust in institutions and government legitimacy.
Strengthening Regional Networks to Address Corruption
The World Bank is helping to strengthen regional cooperation to address corruption. The Bank is a member of the steering committee of the Anti-Corruption Initiative jointly organized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This initiative is focused on regional multi-stakeholder coalition building to encourage policy reforms at the national level. Partners include bilateral donors, multilateral institutions, academia, private sector, and civil society from across the region.
Engagement with civil society
The World Bank is supporting the innovative work of Procurement Watch, a civil society organization in the Philippines that is leading efforts to improve procurement monitoring by bringing together a multi-sectoral coalition of stakeholders with an interest in improving transparency of the procurement process. Procurement Watch facilitates direct access to information for the private sector and civil society, which can lead to greater government transparency and reduced fraud and corruption in the procurement cycle. This project also supports direct participation and engagement of citizen groups in procurement monitoring initiatives.
The Bank is helping governments in the East Asia and Pacific region to develop partnerships with external accountability institutions and think tanks concerned with anti-corruption. These public-private partnerships are helping governments to improve efficiency and transparency of public resource management and service delivery. For example, the World Bank helped with the establishment of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP). ANSA-EAP is a regional network that promotes the practice of social accountability by providing a common platform for exchange of information and experience and by providing capacity-building opportunities and technical assistance to citizen groups and governments to monitor the use of public resources.
In Cambodia, the World Bank is helping to strengthen civil society capacity to engage with government on corruption. The Bank's Demand for Good Governance Project aims to increase transparency, participation, representation, and accountability through encouraging opportunities for multi-stakeholders to provide input into policies, public consultation on spending, and project planning.
Project level work
The corruption-fighting agency of the World Bank—the Institutional Integrity Department (INT) has led an initiative to build regional networks of anti-corruption enforcement personnel—investigators, prosecutors, auditors, anticorruption agency staff and others with responsibility for enforcing national laws banning bribery and other corrupt acts. The Bank’s anti-corruption work includes assistance in sanctioning companies and support for the prosecution of offenders.
Going forward
Addressing corruption not only requires efforts to improve governance but also includes helping people say, "No, this is not acceptable and no, I will not participate in corrupt activities." The Bank is working to help people refrain from becoming involved in corrupt practices by saying "no" and to have that "no" heard around the world.
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