Corruption Risk Assessment Research Articles

СУЧАСНІ ПІДХОДИ ДО ОЦІНКИ КОРУПЦІЙНИХ РИЗИКІВ: АНАЛІЗ КЛЮЧОВИХ ІНДИКАТОРІВ

The work examines modern approaches to the assessment of corruption risks in three blocks: aggregated indices, expert assessments, and surveys of the opinion of the public and business representatives. The conducted analysis of each indicator in the context of its advantages and disadvantages and sources of collected information are displayed and systematized in tabular form. It is noted that it is not possible to make cross-country comparisons for all indicators due to the small sample of some of them, the indirect relationship of certain indicators to corruption risks, the subjectivity of surveys or the imperfect methodology of their construction, which is only gradually improving. The work uses methods of comparative analysis and visualization using VOSviewer, which made it possible to cluster the topic of corruption, to demonstrate in a visual form the key researchers of this phenomenon by surnames and countries of origin. Reasonable advantages of the flexibility that today's wide palette of existing indicators provides to scientists to deepen and combine them in the direction of a specific study, as well as to develop their own indices and methods for assessing corruption risks on a global scale. The development of a universal indicator for the assessment of corruption risks is predicted for the future.

IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PROSECUTOR’S SUPERVISION OVER THE ACTIVITIES OF PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION BODIES IN RELATION TO CORRUPTION-RELATED OFFICIAL CRIMES

The study analyses the reasons for the insufficient effectiveness of prosecutorial supervision during the preliminary investigation - with an in-depth analysis of the supervision of the preliminary investigation of corruption-related official crimes. The author proposes a comprehensive approach to the implementation of measures to improve the effectiveness of prosecutorial supervision, a large-scale digital transformation of the activities of the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement agencies and strengthening work on the prevention of violations of preliminary investigation bodies. It seems advisable to extrapolate on the prosecutor’s supervision the latest experience of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, which has introduced a risk-based approach and assessment of corruption risks when conducting inspections of objects of control (audit). Within the framework of a risk-based approach, the author proposes to rank violations identified during prosecutorial supervision by four risk categories. The assessment of corruption risks of objects of prosecutor’s supervision involves the formation of indicators of corruption risks. Using these indicators, coupled with risk categories, it will be possible to strengthen control and automate the monitoring of law enforcement, primarily in relation to those investigators who have violations of the highest risk categories. The analysis and assessment of corruption risks during prosecutor’s supervision of corruption-related official crimes will serve as an effective tool for detecting violations by the preliminary investigation bodies.

부패방지법의 입법체계 정비방안

The Criminal Law, the Unfair Solicitation Prohibition Act, the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act, the Public Officials Ethics Act, and the Public Officials Report Protection Act have been enacted and implemented in Korea to eradicate corruption according to the type of corruption, the degree of corruption, and the change of the times. After the enactment of the Unfair Solicitation Prohibition Act and the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act, Korea ranked 31st in 2022. Since the Public Officials Ethics Act contains a number of contents to be regulated in the Conflict of Interest Act, it is necessary to regulate it in the Conflict of Interest Act, but it is necessary to reasonably improve the Public Officials Ethics Act. In addition, although it was originally intended to enact the Unfair Solicitation and Conflict of Interest Prevention Act, the anti-corruption system is operated under the division of law, so the efficiency and effectiveness of corruption prevention need to be reorganized into an integrated law. On December 4, 1998, and December 2, 1999, the Framework Act on Anti-Corruption was proposed to the National Assembly twice to prevent and eliminate fundamental corruption, but the Framework Act on the Prevention of Corruption was withdrawn or automatically discarded due to the expiration of the National Assembly due to differences in positions between the ruling and opposition lawmakers. In 2001, the Corruption Prevention Act, a general corporation of the Public Officials Act, was enacted to establish a clean social climate by efficiently regulating corruption prevention and corruption activities. After examining the main contents of Korea's anti-corruption legislation, including the Constitution, and related anti-corruption laws, it is necessary to consider the implications of the anti-corruption legal system by referring to legislative examples in the UK, the US, and France. Korea's anti-corruption system under the Corruption Prevention Act is centered around public organizations and public officials, but it does not regulate corruption prevention and corrupt practices for companies, making it impossible to break the chain of corruption. There is a need to strengthen democracy, the rule of law and national competitiveness by enacting the Basic Anti-Corruption Act and introducing an anti-corruption system not only for public officials but also for companies above a certain size (mid-sized companies and large corporations). Therefore, the relationship with other laws, the anti-corruption responsibilities of the state, local governments, public organizations, companies, and citizens, basic anti-corruption principles, anti-corruption policies, comprehensive anti-corruption plan and implementation plan, corruption risk assessment system, and civil rights. It would be desirable to regulate the committee's compulsory investigation rights, city/provincial anti-corruption committees, public organization anti-corruption committees, establishment of anti-corruption offices, internal audits and public audit request systems, and penalties, etc., in the Framework Act on Corruption Prevention.

Internal Public Audit Mission Regarding "The Assessment of the Corruption Prevention System - Year 2023" at the Level of Local Public Entities in Paltiniş Zonal Center Part II Assessment of Corruption Risks and Assessment of Integrity Incidents

Internal public audit is an essential component of local public administration. In the second part of the article, we have carried out an analysis of the implementation stage (implemented / partially implemented / not implemented) in the case of two preventive measures: Corruption risk assessment and Integrity incident assessment, measures that were audited during the mission of internal public audit regarding the "Evaluation of the corruption prevention system - year 2023" within 14 entities (7 territorial administrative units and 7 secondary education units). In 2023, the third stage of auditing the measures to prevent corruption was carried out, the first stage was carried out in 2019, and the second stage was carried out in 2021. The fourth stage of auditing these preventive measures will be carried out in 2025.

Prevention of Corruption Risks in Criminal Proceedings

The goal of the presented research is to analyze topical issues of preventing corruption risks at the pre-trial and trial stages of criminal proceedings. It is shown that one of such risks is the personal interest of individuals who are authorized to initiate criminal cases, carry out the preliminary investigation, and judges who examine and resolve criminal cases, sanction the use of criminal coercion measures. The authors analyze clauses in the criminal procedure legislation of the Russian Federation, the opinions of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation, as well as one of the leading international anti-corruption organizations - the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). The research of contemporary problems in counteracting risks of corruption in criminal proceedings allowed the authors to present and substantiate some proposals on improving criminal procedure legislation aimed at ensuring the impartiality and integrity of individuals who carry out preliminary investigations and trials. The article describes specific features of the institute of challenging the professional participants of criminal proceedings. The authors state, as a general conclusion, that the assessment of corruption risks is one of the most effective corruption prevention mechanisms and ways of enforcing corresponding anti-corruption measures, which can prevent real corruption schemes in a specific sphere. One of the vital conditions predetermining the successful fulfillment of this task is believed to be the due training of a principally new generation of lawyers-statists who, together with profound knowledge and skills, will be also characterized by high moral standards, legal consciousness, understanding of law and responsibility that are so much needed for working in the bodies of preliminary investigation and the court.

Strategic directions for improving preventive anti-corruption mechanisms in military administration bodies

The purpose of the article was to determine the features of the strategic directions for improving preventive anti-corruption mechanisms in the military command and control bodies.
 The rationale is given that under the conditions of the legal regime of martial law, new conditions arise that contribute to an increase in the number of corruption offenses.
 The article analyzes the legal framework and practice of the activities of military command and control bodies in the field of preventing corruption. Based on the results of the analysis, the following strategic directions were identified.
 First, an assessment of corruption risks, including: a) analysis of anti-corruption messages; b) determination of the causes and conditions conducive to the commission of corruption offenses and offenses related to corruption; c) specification of the list of corruption risks in accordance with the current situation.
 Secondly, reducing the influence of factors associated with a conflict of interest: a) minimizing the possibility of a conflict of interest; b) settlement of conflicts of interest in case of occurrence.
 Thirdly, strengthening the declaration system as a prevention of corruption offenses and offenses related to corruption: a) ensuring the timely submission of declarations by persons authorized to perform the functions of the state; b) increasing the level of reliability of information contained in the declarations of persons authorized to perform the functions of the state.
 Fourthly, the formation of zero tolerance for corruption among military personnel: a) education of a high level of virtue in military personnel; b) strengthening of intra-departmental corporate ethics of anti-corruption orientation.
 Attention is paid to the fact that the legal regime of martial law has left its mark on the implementation of some of these measures. The above necessitates the search for other effective anti-corruption tools, which include numerous sociological surveys, focus groups, analysis of publications in the media, etc.
 The conclusion is made that the strategic directions for improving preventive anti-corruption mechanisms in military command and control bodies are long-term methods of action aimed at reducing the number of corruption offenses and offenses related to corruption.

THE PROCESS OF ASSESSING CORRUPTION RISK IN HIGHER EDUCATION

All government anti-corruption reforms in education are aimed at ensuring the rights and interests of citizens to receive a quality education. With the development of modern public administration and the rapid increase in the number of professions in the private sector, the fight against corruption in higher education is becoming increasingly important. The use of preventive methods in the fight against corruption is widespread in the world, and the use of this area in education provides high efficiency. Corruption risk assessment is one of the most common, integrated preventive methods in the fight against corruption. To this end, the article provides a scientific analysis of the concepts of “corruption risk assessment”, “procedure”, “methods”, and “stages” in higher education, and explains these concepts.

Retrospective Assessment of Corruption Risks and Perspective Assessment of Future Activities of SOCAR

Retrospective Assessment of Corruption Risks and Perspective Assessment of Future Activities of SOCAR

PROCESSING CORRUPTION RISKS IN INSTITUTIONS BY SEARCHING INFORMATION ON OFFICIALS USING PUBLIC INFORMATION SOURCES

The article deals with the methods and publicly available means of searching for information about individuals – carriers of corruption risks at an enterprise, institution, organization. This search, collection and analysis of information in open sources helps to establish phones, email addresses, places of registration of persons, identify their contacts on social networks, find their posts, messages, publications, photos and other information that could be interesting in assessing the likelihood of committing the face of corruption crimes and the assessment of corruption risks at the enterprise. In the process of assessing corruption risks, the key point is to determine the circle of persons who are carriers of the risks of committing corruption at the enterprise/organization, and in the future - to work out their actions, behavior, relationships with other employees and outsiders. It is important to identify stakeholders internal and external to the enterprise / organization (third party), their interests and relationships that can influence the emergence of corruption risks and acts of corruption, or can help reduce risks and prevent corruption. In the process of assessing corruption risks, the key point is to determine the circle of persons who are carriers of the risks of committing corruption at the enterprise / organization, and in the future – to work out their actions, behavior, relationships with other employees and outsiders. It is important to identify stakeholders internal and external to the enterprise / organization (third party), their interests and relationships that can influence the emergence of corruption risks and acts of corruption, or can help reduce risks and prevent corruption. Today there are quite a few Internet resources for collecting public information about an individual, some of them (those that are freely available and are not paid) are discussed in the article. Social networks are undoubtedly one of the most important channels for collecting information about a person, they can help in the investigation and identification of corruption risks associated with the investigated person. Working out information about the person – the bearer of corruption risks using publicly available sources is an important stage in both the anti-corruption policy and investigations related to suspicions of corruption offenses. The information revolution and the globalization of information resources makes people's lives more public and open to external investigators, which requires the formation of new approaches and methods of working with information.

ИНФОРМАЦИОННОЕ ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЕ ОЦЕНКИ КОРРУПЦИОННЫХ РИСКОВ ЗАКУПКИ ТОВАРОВ, РАБОТ, УСЛУГ

The development of contracting system in Russia in the context of the digital economy and market inte-gration into the Unified Information system gives rise to the issues of detection and assessment of corruption risks in the sphere of public procurement. Identification of corruption risks and their ranking by degree of significance are impossible without determining the specifics of disclosing information on the implementation of certain procurement processes and systematizing the elements of information support for the analysis and assessment of the risk level.

A STUDY ON THE CAUSES OF INTERNATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION COOPERATION BETWEEN CHINA AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES UNDER THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE

With the continuous expansion of China’s outward direct investment in countries along the «Maritime Silk Road», the external environment faced by China’s outward direct investment has become increasingly complex. The impact of corruption and government quality has become more prominent. From 2014 to 2019, the corruption index and institutional distance had a significant impact on China’s outward direct investment in the ten ASEAN countries along the Maritime Silk Road and the quality of their governments. The complex situation presented by the cases of the ten ASEAN countries shows that it is difficult to fully analyze the relationship between government quality and direct investment by a single variable such as a corruption index or an institutional distance. It is necessary to introduce a comprehensive analy-sis of multiple factors, such as cultural distance, political stability, and bilateral rela-tions. In view of this, China should strengthen the «Maritime Silk Road» construction corruption risk assessment, create a risk control mechanism and provide more re-gional public products that contribute to sustainable economic development and trade cooperation between countries along the «Maritime Silk Road».

On the issue of providing the audit services of the external assessment of corruption risks in the activity of enterprises and joint stock companies of the state form of ownership: preparation and planning

The article is devoted to the issues of external assessment of corruption risks, which is carried out by organizations that provide audit services, in the activity of enterprises and joint-stock companies of the state form of ownership. Corruption offenses in the activity of legal persons are quite common, which causes serious moral, economical and political problems, hinders development and distorts competition. They also have an extremely negative impact on the system of law enforcement and regulatory agencies, destroy independent justice. Corruption increases the doing business cost, reduces certainty in commercial relations, increases the value of goods and services, reduces their quality, destroys trust in government institutions and hinders fair and efficient market operations. It is legal persons that bear a significant part of the responsibility for the practical contribution to the fight against corruption, independently creating an appropriate atmosphere of corruption intolerance. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the methodology and issues concerned to the practice of external assessment of corruption risks of enterprises' and joint stock companies' of state ownership activity by independent auditors in terms of preparation and planning. This article focuses on the stages and sub-stages, as well as their essential content and significance, concerned to the preparation and planning of external assessment of corruption risks. The list of possible sources of information for external assessment of corruption risks is given. A number of problems of normative and legal, methodical and psychological character, which arise during the external assessment of corruption risks in activity of the enterprises and joint-stock companies of the state form of ownership are highlighted. The external assessment of corruption risks is a systematic work to identify the corruption risks in the enterprise and consists of the following stages: preparation and planning of corruption risk assessment; corruption risks assessment; determination the directions of individual corruption prevention; preparation of draft report, project discussion, and a final report on corruption risk assessment. In turn each of the stages consists of several sub-stages. The result of the corruption risks assessment and the determination of corruption prevention areas depends on the implementation quality of each sub-stage of the external assessment of corruption risks.

A decision support system for fraud detection in public procurement

AbstractOver the past few years, investigators in Brazil have been uncovering numerous corruption and money laundering schemes at all levels of government and in the country's largest corporations. It is estimated that between 2% and 5% of the global GDP is lost annually because of such practices, not only directly impacting public services and private sector development but also strengthening organized crime. However, most law enforcement agencies do not have the capability to carry out systematic corruption risk assessment leveraging on the availability of data related to public procurement. The currently prevailing approach employed by Brazilian law enforcement agencies to detect companies involved in potential cases of fraud consists in receiving circumstantial evidence or complaints from whistleblowers. As a result, a large number of companies involved in fraud remain undetected and unprosecuted. The decision support system (DSS) described in this work addresses these existing limitations by providing a tool for systematic analysis of public procurement. It allows the law enforcement agencies to establish priorities concerning the companies to be investigated. This DSS incorporates data mining algorithms for quantifying dozens of corruption risk patterns for all public contractors inside a specific jurisdiction, leading to improvements in the quality of public spending and to the identification of more cases of fraud. These algorithms combine operations research tools such as graph theory, clusterization, and regression analysis with advanced data science methods to allow the identification of the main risk patterns, such as collusion between bidders, conflicts of interest (e.g., a politician who owns a company contracted by the same government body where he or she was elected), and companies owned by a potentially straw person used for disguising its real owner (e.g., beneficiaries of cash conditional transfer programs). The DSS has already led to a detailed analysis of large public procurement datasets, which add up to more than 50 billion dollars. Moreover, the DSS provided strategic inputs to investigations conducted by federal and state agencies.

Building the Integrity of Urban Development Planner Through Corruption Risk Management and Assessment: Literature Review

Planning in the broadest sense covers definition and selection of needs to evaluation and audit phase. Planning and planners have unique and strategic positions, roles, and functions, because they bring together two sides of interests: public sector interests and private sector interests. This uniqueness causes the field of planning and planners to have a political role and bargaining position in the development planning process. This political role can cause the presence of two sides, which are the bright side as the planner with integrity, who can design internal control systems and risk management for prevention and detection of corruption, and the dark side as the conspirator with public officials and the contractor or business corporation to bring corruption together. The dark side of planning becomes the entry point for corruption and/or fraud. The bright side of planning can be used to build the integrity of community and society, through the application of internal control systems and risk management that are based on specific corruption indicators such as Government Institution Risk Indicator (GIRI), Contractor Risk Indicator (CRI), and Political Connection Indicator (PCI).

DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM OF MEASURES OF DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION AT THE ENTERPRISE

The article deals with the existing problematic issues of anti-corruption measures, as there is a widespread practice of ignoring the laws, which in turn leads to the possibility of avoiding liability and the actual absence of real responsibility for corruption. Effective fight against corruption in Ukraine requires proper legislative support, formation of an effective system of state bodies, ensuring proper formation. Section 10 of the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” sets out the general principles for the prevention of corruption in the activities of legal entities. The general requirements for all, without exception, legal entities are to conduct regular assessment of corruption risks in their activities, as well as to develop and take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent and counteract corruption. However, the legislator does not establish specific forms and methods of implementation of these requirements of the Law, giving legal persons the freedom to choose the most optimal tools for them. In view of the above, corruption usually has a selfish purpose and a desire to obtain illicit remuneration to satisfy its own interest. Therefore, it can be defined that corruption is an act committed by an official or an official, through abuse of office and / or authority for the benefit of the individual at his (or other person's) request, which seeks to reward and satisfy the self-interest of the individual, who commits the act. Anti-corruption activities are carried out within different legal relationships. This fact necessitates the development of various means of preventing corruption, which will help to block this phenomenon in any public relations. Therefore, the paper identifies the main measures to prevent corruption in enterprises.

Anti-corruption, Transparency and Accountability: Case Study of Healthcare in the Arab Countries

ABSTRACTBackground: The Arab states suffer from high levels of corruption. The UNDP’s team there developed an approach to tackle corruption and enhance transparency and accountability in healthcare as part of its broader efforts to support the Sustainable Development Goals. This work evolved into a proper tool, the Conceptual Framework for Corruption Risk Assessment at Sectoral Level (hereafter ‘Framework’), with implementation guides that enable tailoring to sector and country context.Objectives: This article documents the development of the Framework, its methodology and observed added value.Methods: Qualitative methods were utilized comprising desk research, field experience, stakeholder outreach, and focus group observation and documentation. It was most appropriate because the objective was to develop a methodology with specific characteristics.Results: The new approach uses anti-corruption as an explicit entry point to governance reforms. It articulates a structured evidence-based method to apply risk management methodology – tailored to the specificities of corruption as a risk – in healthcare whereby assessment and mitigation are (a) within institutions (b) focused on decision points and (c) around transactions while bringing together health and anti-corruption communities towards designing measurable results-oriented reforms.Conclusions: The Framework may be effective in driving concrete governance reform efforts that demonstrably reduce corruption by means of creating a common language and agenda among different stakeholders, changing the mindset towards reform, and developing targeted solutions with higher return on investment. As such, it may be capable of generating observable and sustainable progress towards healthcare reform.

INTRODUCTION OF RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITY OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

Introduction. The article substantiates the scientific and organizational principles of introducing risk management tools into the functional activities of public institutions as a means of innovation and increasing the competitive status of government institutions at both the state and regional levels. The risks related to the provision of public services and their resource support are structured and identified, as well as the algorithm of their management is substantiated. Goal. To substantiate the essential determinants of risk management and scientific and organizational principles of its introduction into the functional activity of public institutions at the macroeconomic and regional levels. Methods. In the framework of the scientific publication the author used the methods of historical, systematic, comparative and structural analysis, abstract-logical generalization. Results. The paper substantiates the architecture of risk management in the public service, proves that it should be integrated into all subsystems of administrative management of the public institution and be an integral part of the management decision-making process. The mechanism of corruption risk management is considered, which should include: development of a strategy or program for anticipation of possible areas of corruption risks, assessment of corruption risks, development of a mechanism for responding to corruption risks, monitoring the effectiveness of the anti-corruption mechanism. Conclusions. The main provisions of the scientific article will help build an innovative, competitive, professional, transparent, non-corrupt, prestigious, needs-oriented public service.

Проведение оценки коррупционных рисков в федеральных органах исполнительной власти, осуществляющих контрольно-надзорные функции

The relevance of the study is due to the priority tasks facing the state, among which a special place is occupied by the activities to prevent and combat corruption, minimize and eliminate the consequences of corruption offenses, including in the field of public administration. The purpose of the study is a General description of the assessment of corruption risks in the Federal Executive bodies, carrying out control and Supervisory functions. In considering these issues, the author used General, General scientific and private scientific methods, including formal legal. The author analyzes the corruption-dangerous functions, the main stages of corruption risk assessment and the whole system of corruption risk management. The study formed proposals to improve the methods aimed at minimizing the identified corruption risks in the course of the functions of state bodies. The proposed measures, reflected in the conclusions of the work, can be used by the Federal Executive bodies exercising control and Supervisory functions in order to improve their activities.

Looking for consistency in corruption risk assessment: How key guidance materials stack up1

The risk-based approaches for fighting corruption are a trending topic in the contemporary anti-corruption field. They are often presented as useful tools to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities within a system that may cause corruption. However, issues including lack of capacity, knowledge and expertise can affect their practical implementation. This paper discusses different corruption risk assessment methods with the aim to provide both practitioners and academics with a better understanding of the concept of corruption risk management. The study applies comparative methods to analyze five key corruption risk assessment guides, developed by different international organizations, in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses, which could facilitate experts in choosing the methodology that fits best their own needs and requirements. In addition, this paper argues that the most effective way to implement corruption risk assessment is as an organizational level assessment. This research is structured in four parts: the first part explains the concept of risk management and provides definitions of key terms. The second part describes the methodology used in the paper, while the third part presents the comparative analysis. Finally, all findings and results are discussed in the last part of the study.

Political Corruption and Auditor Behavior: Evidence from US Firms

This paper investigates the impact of political corruption on auditor behavior in the United States. We find that US firms headquartered in more corrupt regions pay higher audit fees, have longer audit report lags, and are more likely to receive a going concern audit opinion. Political corruption is a manifestation of a weak institutional environment and, as such, weakens the rule of law. In addition, political corruption erodes the public’s belief in a political system and reduces interpersonal trust. Our results suggest that auditors assess the risk and trustworthiness of their clients based on where firms are headquartered. The results are robust to using a 2SLS regression analysis and a propensity-score-matched sample. This study extends the prior research on political corruption and the client risk management strategies used by external auditors. Moreover, the current study will be helpful to regulators considering the more explicit role of external auditors in corruption risk assessment.