Courts must expeditiously, but fairly, adjudicate corruption cases, and the penalties imposed on those convicted must be sufficient to dissuade others from similar acts. To ensure that anti-corruption laws are indeed being effectively enforced, governments need to monitor the enforcement process.
Doing so can provide performance measures to inform and guide policy design and implementation. These performance measures also serve as indicators of corruption. In the short run, policy makers may not be able to do much to change these indicators, but measures, focused on performance, can provide a country something more concrete to act upon, helping policy-makers to prioritize.
For example, if the number of completed corruption investigations in a particular country is low because of difficulty in obtaining evidence, it can identify changes in policy and procedures which expand or strengthen investigators powers and tools such as providing it with subpeona powers or access to financial records.
Corruption and likewise the success on deterring it cannot be measured by perception alone. The Uganda's first annual report on corruption is one of the most recent examples of a concrete initiative on measuring performance for implementing informed actions. The report recommends a review of Uganda’s judicial process in fighting corruption by, among other actions, adapting a 60-day timeline for prosecuting corruption cases.
Like many other countries, Uganda has the right institutions and legal framework for investigating and prosecuting corruption cases but enforcement remains a challenge. The initiative proposes the use of data tracking mechanisms and actionable indicators that will allow to monitor progress in the implementation of specific reforms and policy changes on a periodic basis.
1. Are you aware of existing performance measures or monitoring mechanism(s) implemented in your country for tracking progress in investigating and prosecuting corruption cases?
2. If yes, is the data from monitoring (or some performance measure) publicly available? If so, how is the information made public (annual report, webpage, report to legislative or executive branch, etc.) and how often is it made public?
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