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Combating Corruption
World Bank
Combating Corruption
https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/governance/brief/anti-corruption.print 1/9
4/12/23, 11:29 AM Combating Corruption
The World Bank Group considers corruption a major challenge to its twin goals of
ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity for the poorest 40
percent of people in developing countries.
Empirical studies have shown that the poor pay the highest percentage of their
income in bribes. Some studies have suggested that the poor may even be preyed
upon since they are seen as powerless to complain. Every stolen or misdirected
dollar, euro, peso, yuan, rupee, or ruble robs the poor of an equal opportunity in life
and prevents governments from investing in their human capital.
Corruption erodes trust in government and undermines the social contract. This is
cause for concern across the globe, but particularly in contexts of fragility and
violence, as corruption fuels and perpetuates the inequalities and discontent that
lead to fragility, violent extremism, and conflict.
The World Bank Group recognizes that corruption comes in different forms. It might
impact service delivery, such as when an official asks for bribes to perform routine
services. Corruption might unfairly determine the winners of government contracts,
with awards favoring friends, relatives, or business associates of government
officials. Or it might come in the form of state capture, distorting how institutions
work and who controls them, a form of corruption that is often the costliest in terms
of overall economic impact. Each type of corruption is important and tackling all of
them is critical to achieving progress and sustainable change.
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Short of sweeping reform efforts, progress can be achieved through better and more
open processes, professional accountability systems, and the use of the latest
advanced technologies to capture, analyze, and share data to prevent, detect, and
deter corrupt behavior.
The World Bank Group leverages innovative technologies to strengthen public sector
performance and productivity, confront corruption and to help foster greater trust
and accountability, particularly in more fragile environments.
Much of the world's costliest forms of corruption could not happen without
institutions in wealthy nations: the private sector firms that give large bribes, the
financial institutions that accept corrupt proceeds, and the lawyers, bankers, and
accountants who facilitate corrupt transactions. Data on international financial flows
shows that money is moving from poor to wealthy countries in ways that
fundamentally undermine development.
Approach:
Corruption is a global problem that requires global solutions. The World Bank Group
has been working to mitigate the pernicious effects of corruption in its client
countries for more than 20 years.
The Bank Group works at the country, regional, and global levels to help build
capable, transparent, and accountable institutions and design and implement
anticorruption programs relying on the latest discourse and innovations. The World
Bank Group’s work revolves around sustainability and changing outcomes by helping
both state and non-state actors establish the competencies needed to implement
policies and practices that improve results and strengthen public integrity.
Additionally, the World Bank Group works with the public and private sectors as well
as civil society to support efforts to prevent corruption, improve remedies to address
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wrongdoing when it occurs as well as work towards improving behaviors, norms, and
standards needed to sustain anticorruption efforts.
In fiscal year 2020, the World Bank Group debarred or otherwise sanctioned 49 firms
and individuals and recognized 72 cross-debarments from other multilateral
development banks. At the end of fiscal year 2020, 372 entities have been sanctioned
with conditional release, a process by which firms are afforded the opportunity to
improve their internal compliance programs as part of their sanction.
recognize that the local political and social context influences both the level of
corruption and the reform approaches likely to meet with success or failure.
The World Bank has recently launched a set of Anticorruption Initiatives to reaffirm its
commitment to helping countries address corruption, addressing changes in
globalization, technology, social science, and other factors. The Anticorruption
Initiatives broaden the Bank’s focus beyond developing countries to also include
financial centers, take on the politics of corruption more openly than before, harness
new technologies to understand, address, and prevent corruption, and integrate the
insights of behavioral social science.
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Recognizing that attempts to control corruption have brought important lessons, the
World Bank Group released in September 2020 a global report drawing on case
studies of various tools and approaches. Enhancing Government Effectiveness and
Transparency: The Fight Against Corruption covers five key thematic areas: public
procurement, infrastructure, state-owned enterprises, customs administration and
service delivery, and cross-cutting themes such as open government initiatives and
GovTech, with case study examples from around the world.
In Brazil, the World Bank helped develop an Artificial Intelligence System that
identifies 225 red-flags of potential fraud in public procurement processes and can
help improve expenditures. The system has, so far, led to the identification of
hundreds of high-risk cases, firms with high likelihood of being shell companies,
linked firms competing against each other, public servants working at the same
governmental agency that has executed the contract, among others.
In Kenya, a World Bank judicial project helped establish an advanced data analytics
system which is being used to monitor performance of courts, judges, and court
personnel. Operating as part of an explicit anticorruption effort, the performance
management system is being used in combination with surveys of court users to
identify and address corruption risks.
In Mongolia, the World Bank supported the government’s efforts to support open
budgets, including the publication of user-friendly Citizen’s Budgets, updating the
online portals for accessing expenditure information, and others.
In Somalia, the World Bank in collaboration with the IMF and other partners has
supported the creation of a joint Somalia Government - international donor advisory
group that has been reviewing all substantial government contracts that have not
been appropriately awarded, leading to those contracts being halted and reset. In one
case, the restructuring and competitive tendering of the largest goods contracts that
the state had - for military food supplies – saved over 40%.
In Ukraine, the World Bank worked with other partners to promote the creation of a
specialized anticorruption court, and helped create a comprehensive electronic asset
declaration system.
Assists countries with the coordination and mutual legal assistance required to
identify and return stolen assets, through its StAR initiative in partnership with
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
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Helps countries identify possible source of illicit flows and how to address them
through National Risk Assessments, completed or ongoing in over 100 countries.
RELATED LINKS
Preventing and Managing Conflicts of Interest in the Public Sector: Good Practices Guide
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