Open data and effective legislation are key to prevent corruption, speakers said during the afternoon session of the International Conference of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on Friday. Three keynote speakers addressed the topic “Combating Corruption, Defending Democracy”, and focused on tools, especially digital technology and data collection, that can be effective in the implementation of measures against corruption.
Roby Senderowitsch, World Bank Manager of Leadership, Learning & Innovation, spoke about ways of building more effective, inclusive and accountable institutions that will allow the countries to tackle corruption. He stressed that it is not enough to identify wrongdoing, but also to respond immediately, as well as to secure the right of access to information, given that the states make sure that the information is there to be accessed. He also noted that, in countries where information is indeed accessible, the most frequent users of this right are in fact the media and even government officials.
Senderowitsch went on to say that transparency, as a major aspect of the fight against corruption, is not really there, without accountability. He explained that “a number of policies, such as strong public financial systems, a strong and independent judicial system, with a strong body of prosecutors, in terms of capacity, as well as independence, a strong and independent supreme auditee institution with the possibility of imposing sanctions” are essential.
He also referred to technical solutions that had been mentioned earlier during the conference, saying that technology can be transformational, but he addressed the issue that most of these solutions have not been implemented, as, according to him “we have overemphasised the technical side of the solutions, and underemphasised the political side of the solutions”. He explained that, when fighting corruption, it is not enough to have the right legislation, and stressed out the need for collective actions and political will.
Konstantine Vardzelashvili, Head of ODIHR Democratization Department, followed Senderowitsch, speaking about the tools suggested to national parliaments that the Organization works with. He pointed out that human rights suffer from the erosion of institutions that should be effectively checking.
“Corruption cannot spread widely without public institutions being involved in it”, he said and added that national parliaments can play a fundamental role in tackling this kind of erosion and political corruption, that leads to democratic backsliding. In that regard, he mentioned that more than 15 OSCE Parliaments received assistance in developing reform strategies and legislative framework to establish institutions to fight corruption.
“It can be more damaging to have a code of conduct or anti-corruption related measures, which are not enforced or ignored in practice, than not have it at all”, Vardzelashvili said, and explained that “having a legislation that is not respected, ruins the trust into the state, while not having such laws leaves a hope that it will be better in the future.”
On his part, Jon Vrushi, Transparency International Research Analyst, spoke about transparency of anti-corruption data, empowerment of oversight and supervision agencies and support to media and social society. He said that, after assessing 35 of the members of OSCE, the Organisation concluded that only 5 of these countries are “somewhat close to what we need for effective control of corruption”, as data related to intersessions of public and private interest were either unavailable or in a format that was not useful.
Vrushi said that the Organisation was lately granted EU funding to proceed with filling gaps in data keeping and availability in 16 EU member states and also expressed the wish to expand this work among OSCE members. He also highlighted the important role of national Parliaments to hold governments to account, through the oversight and approval of budgets. “International institutions also need to have their own integrity mechanisms” he added, and congratulated Irene Charalambides for working on codes of conduct “which will be a great start to pave the way for the establishment of a functioning mechanism”, as he said.
He concluded pointing out the need to empower media, civil society and whistleblowers, by creating a sense of openness and inclusion, as well as providing protection against legal intimidation. “Let’s work together to make open data a reality, strengthen oversight institutions and protect civic space,” Vrushi said.
Source: Cyprus News Agency