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Spotlight - Corruption
The Anti-Corruption Ring Online
Frédéric Wehrlé, Financial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs Directorate (DAF)
A key element in an effective anti-corruption campaign is the sharing of information and experience on initiatives taken by countries, international organisations and civil society. With this in mind, the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Unit has launched an extensive information centre on the web that includes regional networks. Participating countries and international organisations continuously supply the regional webs with relevant information on country-specific anti-
corruption initiatives, survey results, research reports and other relevant anti-corruption information, including technical assistance programmes.
Three regional webs have so far been launched. The first one, set up in October 1998, is called the Anti-Corruption Network for Transition Economies, and is targeted at countries from central and eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union. All parties interested in reducing public sector corruption in the region -- government, businesses, civil society, private individuals -- can share action-oriented data through this network. The second one is for the Asia-Pacific region. It includes a regular forum on anti-corruption activities under the joint auspices of the Asian Development Bank and the OECD. The third one is for south-eastern Europe and is part of the Stability Pact Anti-Corruption Initiative for South-Eastern Europe, which it helps to monitor.
These three regional webs are part of one of the largest information centres on corruption and bribery on the web. Called the Anti-Corruption Ring Online or AnCorR Web, it is a repository of more than 3,000 references to books, journals, papers and other articles, as well as downloadable or on-line anti-corruption documentation, such as laws, international conventions, anti-corruption strategies and other anti-corruption information. Anti-corruption practitioners and individuals need to have concrete information in order to design and implement anti-corruption activities, and AnCorR provides the qualitative and quantitative knowledge that is required to assess all aspects of corruption. It also helps donors to identify the current situation in most regions of the world and to provide them with a real-time working tool to co-ordinate their assistance programmes.
By providing a forum for policy dialogue well as offering direct access to the regional initiatives, the AnCorR web enables
experts and the public to keep track of the fight against corruption around the world. AnCorR is supported by a large number of partnerships, including with the American University of Paris, Basel University’s Law School, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), the Institute of Latin American Studies of the University of Sorbonne, the International Chambre of Commerce (ICC), the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC), the World Bank and the Stability Pact. END