Building Institutions to Fight Corruption

The 2018 IMF Framework for Enhanced Engagement on Governance is designed to promote more systematic, effective, and candid engagement with member countries regarding governance vulnerabilities, including corruption, that are judged to be macroeconomically critical.

In line with this Framework, staff from the International Monetary Fund's Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) and Joint Vienna Institute (JVI) led the first JVI course on "Building Institutions to Fight Corruption" in Vienna from November 27 to December 1, 2023. This course was co-funded by the European Union and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in the context of the IMF's Revenue Administration and Public Financial Management Program in Southeast Europe.

JVI is one of the IMF's 17 regional capacity development centers worldwide, and trains public sector officials from countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Similar anti-corruption courses were conducted through the IMF's Africa Training Institute and IMF's Middle East Center for Economics and Finance in 2020, 2022, and 2023.

The course covered the fiscal governance pillar of the 2018 IMF Framework and focused on the public financial management (PFM) cycle, including systems and processes in both revenue administration and the expenditure side.?The lectures highlighted the red flags that can alert possible challenges and governance vulnerabilities in budget preparation, budget execution, asset and liability management, revenue administration.

The course also covered the governance vulnerabilities to corruption in public corporations, public investment or infrastructure governance, procurement and financial oversight. During the discussions on the mitigating measures, lecturers also highlighted the importance of increasing clarity in the legal framework, transparency and digitization.?Presenters also discussed the enforcement of legal frameworks, the implementation of sanctions, and the importance of HR issues.

The course attracted a very high number of applicants (nearly 200, one of the highest levels at the JVI). Countries represented were: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.

Officials from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Ukraine presented their reforms in transparency, digitalization, and strengthening legal frameworks and internal audit to fight against corruption.

Course lecturers were:?Yasemin Hurcan (course coordinator, IMF FAD Regional PFM Advisor in Southeast Europe), Nabila Akhazzan (Senior Economist, IMF), Markus Eller (Senior Economist, JVI).

From the IMF, the following colleagues also attended the course remotely: Laura Gores, Andja Komso, Marina Marinkov, Fazeer Rahim, Nino Tchelishvili, and Concepción Verdugo Yepes. World Bank colleague Orjana Ibrahimi covered the procurement topic.

The following guest speakers attended the course and enriched the discussions: Susanna Binder, Head of Unit on Prevention and Basic Research, at the Austrian Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption (Federal Ministry of the Interior); Klemens Gundaecker, Head of Internal Audit Division at the Office of the Federal Government of Lower Austria; and Petra Schirnhofer from the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions' Development Initiative, and Zorayr Karapetyan from the Armenian Supreme Audit Institution.

Project managers Vaclac Sterba (European Commission) and Aurela Cotton (SECO) for the IMF's Revenue Administration and Public Financial Management in Southeast Europe also joined the first day of the course and talked about the EU and Swiss views on the subject, including the importance of rule of law and anti-corruption efforts in the EU accession process for the candidate and potential candidate countries.

The IMF thanks its development partners for their support to anti-corruption efforts, including the European Union, Switzerland, JVI funding partners (Austrian Ministry of Finance and National Bank), and the donors of the IMF's Thematic Fund on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.