Cypriot authorities, with support from the Council of Europe, are taking further steps in the implementation of the National Horizontal Action Plan against Corruption in Cyprus. These include the development and implementation of dedicated training curricula on anti-corruption for the country’s civil servants.
As part of this process, a multi-stakeholder workshop on anti-corruption curricula for civil servants in Cyprus was jointly organised by the Council of Europe, the Ministry of Justice and Public Order (MJPO) and the Cyprus Academy for Public administration (CAPA), in the premises of the Ministry of Finance. The event brought together 17 representatives of Cypriot institutions and civil society organisations involved in different aspects of the national anti-corruption framework – including, besides the Office of Transparency and Prevention of Corruption within the MJPO and CAPA, the new staff of the Independent Authority against Corruption in Cyprus, the Audit Office of the Republic, the Internal Affairs Service, the Cyprus Police, the Cyprus Police Academy, Cyprus Prisons, the House of Representatives, and the Cyprus Integrity Forum, together with the European Commission (DG-REFORM) and Council of Europe team.
Following up on a first consultative workshop organised online on 17 February 2022, where priority issues and topics for anti-corruption curricula for Cypriot civil servants were discussed and identified, on the basis of a preliminary questionnaire, the project had produced a proposed outline for the curriculum. This second multi-stakeholder workshop served to discuss, validate and enhance the contents of the outline, based on the current Cypriot reality, in order to proceed further with the development of the complete curriculum training materials for civil servants. In addition to its contents, different options for the format of the curriculum were also discussed, in order to ensure the realistic feasibility of its future roll-out by the Cyprus Academy for Public Administration to all civil servants in Cyprus.
The active feedback and advice from all participants, constituted as an “Advisory Group of national experts” on this matter through the facilitation of the MJPO and CAPA, provided valuable inputs for the further adjustments of the anti-corruption curriculum and development of related training materials. The Group agreed to reconvene in July, after the preparation of all draft training materials, in order to validate those and discuss in more detail the future training-of-trainers and further training plan for Cypriot civil servants on anti-corruption.
The activation of this multi-stakeholder Advisory Group to support targeted anti-corruption training intervenes at an important time for the anti-corruption agenda in Cyprus. Indeed, as presented by the representatives of the Office of Transparency and Prevention of Corruption of the MJPO during the event, three major pieces of national legislation were recently adopted in this area, after a long period of preparation and parliamentary debate, namely the Law on the Protection of Persons who Report breaches of Union and National Law (or “whistle-blower protection Law”); the Law on the Establishment and Operation of the Independent Authority against Corruption ( or “Law on the IAAC”); and the Law on Transparency in Public Decision-Making and Related Matters (or “lobbying Law”). While these new Laws constitute a major advancement to align the national anti-corruption framework of Cyprus with European and international standards, strong efforts are required for their effective implementation – including through capacity building. This new and evolving framework will be taken into account in the anti-corruption curricula currently under development, in order to support the Cypriot public service with tailored and up-to-date awareness and knowledge on the application of corruption prevention measures.
This workshop was organised within the framework of the Structural Reform Support Programme initiative “Implementation of the National Horizontal Action Plan against Corruption in Cyprus”, funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.
