Within the framework of the 2020 Council of Europe/EU Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) envelope, the Economic Crime and Cooperation Division is assisting Cypriot authorities with the implementation of specific actions envisaged by the National Horizontal Action Plan against Corruption.
Besides technical assistance provided in selected anti-corruption areas, such as conflict of interest management and related training for civil servants, for example, the project has also undertaken to advise and guide the authorities in charge of the implementation of the Action Plan on how to monitor its results. The idea is to support a methodology allowing Cypriot public authorities to monitor and evaluate the extent to which their actions against corruption reach their intended objectives.
After a thorough consultative process through questionnaires and a series of online working meetings with the Cypriot authorities, in particular the Office for Transparency and Prevention of Corruption within the Ministry of Justice and Public Order (MJPO), the Council of Europe produced a “Guidance paper on a methodology for the evaluation and monitoring of the implementation of anti-corruption actions by public sector stakeholders”. The paper contains substantive strategic and technical advice on results-based monitoring and evaluation of public anti-corruption efforts, specifically tailored to the Cypriot context, including a detailed analysis of the current National Horizontal Action Plan against Corruption in Cyprus, with recommendations for the formulation of more measurable objectives and proposed indicators.
The steps leading to the development of this tailored Guidance paper included: a desk review of the National Strategy against Corruption, National Horizontal Action Plan and related documentation; a diversified data collection process through the distribution of a written questionnaire to the entire range of national agencies playing a role in the Action Plan’s implementation, and several consultative meetings; a continuous consultative and joint elaboration process with the Office for Transparency and Corruption Prevention of the MJPO during the development of the paper; and several rounds of circulation of the draft paper among national stakeholders for their comments, in order to refine the contents and adjust them at best to the current Cypriot reality. This process in itself, with close participation of the representatives from the main partner institutions, helped ensure national ownership of the findings and recommendations of the paper, in addition to their accuracy and relevance.
In addition, this joint working process served as a form of “on-the-job” capacity-building exercise for the most closely involved counterparts, familiarising them with key notions of results-based management, to promote more results-oriented planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of anti-corruption actions in Cyprus. Indeed, some of the currently planned actions could benefit from a more precise definition of objectives and targets, in order for the outcomes of their implementation to be practically evaluated in the future.
Another purpose of the consultative process consisted in identifying monitoring mechanisms already existing within Cyprus’ institutional practices, which the monitoring system for anti-corruption actions could use and build on, for better feasibility and efficiency.
In its conclusions, the Guidance paper also proposes a concrete roadmap with short- and medium-term actionable next steps towards the application of this results-based approach to anti-corruption action planning and monitoring in Cyprus. The project will continue to accompany the Cypriot authorities in this endeavour.
These activities were conducted 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.
