Project Description
Description
Over the past two years, the Austrian Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAK) has initiated and overseen an inclusive, step-by-step process aimed at the development of an anti-corruption strategy, building upon contributions (in writing and at expert meetings) from relevant stakeholders representing the entire Austrian state administration. Based on those contributions concerning specific, pre-identified topics such as codes of conduct, national standards for the prevention of corruption, corruption and the mass media and compliance as an overall system, related best practices have been identified and integrated in the above-mentioned strategy.
Key results
The above-described process has led to the identification of valuable best practices and an increased awareness about the need for a strategic approach regarding the prevention of corruption and malpractice. Besides, a sound foundation has been built for the establishment of a national anti-corruption network to be further strengthened and extended in the coming years.
As the first organizational unit in public administration, the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior (MoI) established a compliance system in mid-2013 after comprehensive preliminary work. In addition to the Chief Compliance Officer of the MoI, a network of compliance officers for all Federal Police Directorates and appropriate trainings are part of this system. The MoI shares its expertise gained during the implementation of the compliance system with other bodies of the Austrian public administration.
Since autumn 2013, the BAK has constantly carried out trainings for various organizational units of the MoI and its subordinate bodies. On the one hand, the trainings aim at raising awareness of civil servants on the topic of corruption, on the other hand, they contribute to a better understanding of compliance. In addition to basics on the compliance system of the MoI, the phenomenon of corruption and its psychological motives, effective mechanisms of corruption prevention are presented and the new legal situation in terms of the criminal law on corruption is illustrated. These trainings increase the ability of employees to act correctly (legal certainty) and meet the needs of the participants thanks to the well-matched lectures. The trainings are divided into three modules which depend on each other. Among other things, the procurement workflow of the MoI as a tool for transparent monitoring and execution of procurement procedures is presented.
Key lessons learnt
Respect for different approaches and opinions as well as a firm commitment to achieve concrete results is key to the development and implementation of a strategy. The numerous rounds of expert meetings have shown that a variety of ideas relating to the prevention of corruption exists and that different state representatives often face similar challenges and risks.
Other relevant information
The BAK is about to publish a booklet, consisting of the different expert contributions received during the process of developing the anti-corruption strategy.
