ACAs can support policymakers in the development of anti-corruption policies by providing evidence through research, studies and technical advice. In order to advise the development of national anti-corruption strategies, expertise is required on a broad range of national issues and public policy processes, including public financial management, public procurement, civil service management, service delivery systems in different sectors, state-owned enterprises, privatization or nationalization processes and natural resource management. Because such a range of expertise cannot be found in a single agency, (Hence) developing national anti-corruption strategies requires extensive consultation and coordination with a variety of national institutions and other actors in order to tap their expertise and at the same time gain their support and ownership of the proposed reforms.
Conducting research on corruption (to inform anti-corruption responses) underpins the majority of the ACA’s functions and requires specific capacities; it is explored in a separate module.
A key step in anti-corruption policy formulation, and particularly in comprehensive national anti-corruption strategies, is the elaboration of Implementation plans (action plans). These documents are secondary to anti-corruption strategies, and they contain specific measures directed at reforming sectors and/or institutions. To be considered adequate, they should contain a meaningful set of proposed actions with specific deadlines, responsibilities and indicators/benchmarks. There should be a clear link between the strategy and the action plan and/or sectoral action plans (i.e. the action plan measure should clearly contribute towards the completion of a strategy goal).
ACAs can contribute to the development of anti-corruption action plans in various ways: gathering and analyzing information from various state agencies, coordinating the activities for the development of the plans and providing advice for the development of benchmarking and monitoring systems for the various activities.
ACAs are frequently mandated to ensure the proper implementation of the anti-corruption action plans discussed above. In this context, ACAs may have to ensure effective communication and cooperation among the various institutions responsible for related processes: for instance, between the agency responsible for defining public procurement policy and the agency receiving complaints from bidders on breaches of rules, or between the agency receiving complaints and the agency responsible for sanctions. Similarly, it must also monitor the implementation of the responsibilities assigned to different national institutions under national anti-corruption strategies and sector/institutional action plans. This means that ACAs are supposed to perform quality control of the reports received from other institutions, review progress against set benchmarks and consolidate progress reports.
In November 2009, the Conference of the States Parties to the UNCAC adopted a Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the Convention. According to the Mechanism, States Parties under review are required to fill in a UNCAC Self-Assessment Checklist and to send their Self-Assessment Reports to the Secretariat of the Convention (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - UNODC). State Parties are required to task a public agency to act as focal point for the self-assessment exercise;ACAs may receive this mandate, or may play a key role in backstopping and coordination in support of the exercise. UNDP developed a Guidance Note for the UNCAC Self-Assessment that highlights the importance of engaging relevant stakeholders in a participatory process to exploit the potential of the exercise as an advocacy and awareness raising tool for anti-corruption measures. Given the linkages between the different anti-corruption measures and the need for comprehensive anti-corruption responses, the Guidance Note also encourages countries going through the self-assessment process to review implementation of all the UNCAC chapters, not just those that make the focus of the given UNCAC review cycle. Given the comprehensiveness of the self-assessment checklist and the fact that it requires detailed information on the national anti-corruption legal and institutional framework, the exercise can be utilized by the ACA in preparation for the development of the national anti-corruption strategy or in relation to the other functions discussed in this module (developing action plans, coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the action plans).
