7. Prevention of corruption

Basic preconditions for preventing corruption

The aim of preventing corruption is to create such a social climate that tolerance for corruption and any illegal conduct in relation to corruption is zero. The conceptual aim of preventive anti-corruption policy is to promote and protect the public interest, reduce space and opportunities for corruption, improve the quality of the legislative and legal environment, promote and enforce transparency, improve business conditions, enhance the integrity culture, strengthen legal awareness and individual involvement in prevention and fight against corruption.

In the process of promoting anti-corruption policy, eliminating corruption and strengthening integrity in response to current societal challenges it is essential to develop national anti-corruption policy in line with international anti-corruption standards and accepted integrity principles. The basic prerequisite for national anti-corruption programs and anti-corruption action plans is the active management of corruption risks along with managerial responsibility for the effective application of anti-corruption measures and the setting up of control mechanisms with priority in risk areas.

In most countries, the coordinating body of prevention is the police, where the main focus of repressive and preventive activities in the elimination of corruption crimes lies. This concept was applied in ensuring the national preventive anti-corruption policy until 2017 also in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. By the establishment of the Corruption Prevention Department within the structure of the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic, preventive anti-corruption initiatives are developed under the responsibility of the department and these are subsequently applied throughout the state administration.

Corruption is a global problem that interferes with all areas of social life, including the private sphere. Managing corruption risks and taking measures to minimize corruption as a part of an organizational integrity culture play a special role in pursuing anti-corruption policy within the private sector. In the process of implementing anti-corruption measures, executive managers have a high degree of responsibility for ensuring an effective internal control system, observing professional ethics and integrity principles, as well as strengthening the educational level of employees.

Transparency International Slovakia, Fair-play Alliance, Stop Corruption and many other NGOs are actively pursuing preventive anti-corruption policies, directing their activities to monitoring important indicators of corruption, conducting analyzes and independent expertise, monitoring developments and key trends in preventing corruption, stimulating anti-corruption public debate and support for new social trends in the elimination of corruption.

Significant preventive anti-corruption tools

An important tool to eliminate the possible occurrence of corruption is to ensure transparent disclosure and free disclosure of public administration information. Transparent provision of public access to the information of individual public sector institutions is generally considered to be one of the most effective tools in the fight against corruption. Free and the widest possible access to information effectively eliminates potential corruption points and fundamentally increases the risk of disclosure.

An important measure to minimize corruption is the strict sanction of any form of corrupt behavior, including the withdrawal of assets from corruption, as well as the exclusion of corrupt persons from the exercise of a profession, employment or function. In this context, it is necessary to continually profile the legal awareness and involvement of citizens in preventive anti-corruption activities and reporting corruption crimes. It is also possible to subsume the personnel policy to the given initiatives, in which the quality of public administration employees' selection is conditional for the observance of moral values, principles of integrity and strengthening the transparency in the performance of public functions.

National and sector anti-corruption programs, designed primarily for public sector institutions in order to strengthen the integrity of public administration, ensure transparency and restore confidence in governmental institutions, play an important role in eliminating the potential for corruption. The role of anti-corruption program makers is to appeal to raising legal awareness and engaging society in preventive activities and in the fight against corruption.

Submission of comprehensive anti-corruption initiatives, development of a national anti-corruption policy and implementation of effective tools for penalizing corruption offenses require close cooperation and synergy of interests of public authorities, private sector, civil society and the general public in a national and international context. This fact is also recognized by the Government of the Slovak Republic, which renders preventive anti-corruption measures and strengthening the fight against corruption crimes as one of the key priorities in its program declaration.

National and departmental preventive anti-corruption initiatives

In the continuity of elaboration of the program declaration of the Government of the Slovak Republic and the fulfillment of tasks in the field of preventive anti-corruption policy, the Department of Prevention of Corruption and Crisis Management of the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic prepared significant anti-corruption documents. The Government of the Slovak Republic approved the draft of Anti-Corruption Policy of the Slovak Republic for the years 2019 - 2023 by the Resolution No. 585 of 12 December 2018 and, at the same time, set the tasks conditioning the implementation of the anti-corruption policy within the state administration.

As the approved anti-corruption policy identified the absence of effective coordination of prevention of corruption within individual ministries, anti-corruption coordinators were established at ministries and other central state administration bodies. They are responsible for the systematic guidance of departments in the process of implementation of the national anti-corruption policy, as well as the responsibility for the elaboration of the sector anti-corruption program and its publication on the departments' website. In order to eliminate the negative effects of corruption and develop national anti-corruption initiatives, as well as due to the international commitments of the Slovak Republic, a ministry's anti-corruption program has been developed and published at each ministry in 2019.

In the context of the main objective of the Slovak Republic's Anti-Corruption Policy for 2019 - 2020 to eliminate opportunities for corruption in the public sector, penalize corruption entities and increase trust of public authorities, the National Corruption Prevention Department worked out the National Counter-corruption Program, which was adopted by the resolution of the Government of the Slovak Republic No. 426 of 4 September 2019. An important initiative of the Corruption Prevention Department is the implementation of the Anti-Corruption Management System within the conditions of the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic in accordance with ISO 37001: 2016

Assessment of corruption risks, their impact on the activity, objectives and credibility of the state administration is a continuous process. The measures are subsequently monitored and evaluated in order to strengthen the prevention of corruption, improve the system and eliminate corruption risks. The elimination of potential threats of corruption and thus the loss of credibility on the part of the public is conditioned by the strict adherence to the principles of anti-corruption policy at both, the national and departmental level, with the preference of managerial responsibility, as well as the personal attitude and commitment of each individual in preventing, weakening and eliminating new trends in corruption risks, while strengthening professional ethics, morality and a culture of integrity.

Remember

Every individual in a society is responsible for the success of preventing and combating this crime.
The conceptual aim of a preventive anti-corruption policy is to protect the public interest, promote and enforce transparency, improve the quality of the legislative and legal environment, enhance the culture of integrity, improve business conditions and reduce space and opportunities for corruption.
In order to eliminate the negative effects of corruption, develop national anti-corruption initiatives, as well as due to the international commitments of the Slovak Republic, a ministry's anti-corruption program has been elaborated and published on a website at each headquarters.
Prevention of corruption at the national level is the responsibility of the Corruption Prevention Department of the Corruption Prevention and Crisis Management Section of the Office of the Prime Minister of the Governmental Office of the Slovak Republic.
One of the most important anti-corruption tools is the active approach of citizens to reporting corruption offenses.

Police

7. Prevention of corruption