The project aimed to raise awareness of the causes and consequences of corruption, and develop advocacy for reforms. Also, the outcome of the project was expected to be a public/private partnership which would deal with problems in a cooperative way.
Policy Area: Other
Investigative Journalism and Access to Information in Albania
The activities of this project aimed to address the need for greater awareness on and implementation of the law of access to information.
Award “White Crow”
As part of the project people fighting corruption were given an award. Follow-up measures: involving award winners in network, providing platforms for their story etc.
Courses on Investigative Journalism
The project was comprised of teaching individuals (mainly students) on how to do investigative journalism: classes on legislation, society etc. as well as writing courses.
Newspaper in Bratislava Municipality on Clean Government
Students of a course on investigative journalism published their own local newspaper in a suburb of Bratislava known for its intransparent public administration. AFP supported the students in writing articles and publishing the newspaper. The project was stopped because too much AFP capacity/specialized staff was needed.
Positive motivation (Open Politics)
As part of the project, politicians were encouraged to publish their assets on a website (access with own password, accuracy of information cannot be verified but the public can check). Politicians could constantly update the information. The campaign targeted individual politicians, not parties, because voters can vote for individual candidates on the party lists (personalized vote).
Promoting of new anti-corruption legislation for Traffic Police employees
The project consisted in the preparation and publishing of brochures for the Traffic Police officers with comments and explanations to the newly adopted anti-corruption legislation, as well as lectures for the Traffic Police Employees.
Say NO to Corruption
The project developed a guide is intended to help young people with a batch of information about corruption and serious consequences of this fact.
The publication is divided into two chapters.
The first chapter contains general information about what is corruption, what is not corruption, influence traffic, serious consequences of this fact, methods to prevent it, national and international anti-corruption documents etc.
The second chapter contains results, ideas and opinions of young people resulted from developing various activities in the project “Youth against Corruption”, local and final debates on ethics in education and public administration, the findings of a research study on the effects of corruption in education and the results of a survey on the perception of young people about corruption.
This guide has been published in the project “Youth against Corruption”, coordinated by the Pro Democracy Association in partnership with the Romanian Association for Debate, Oratory and Rhetoric, funded by the European Union, through the Transition Facility 2007/19343.01.11 – Strengthening support of civil society in the fight against corruption.
Against Corruption
Through the project instructive seminars for teachers and high school pupils were organized during the school year under the name “Against Corruption””. Politics and economy, sociology and ethics teachers were invited, as well as any interested teachers of other subjects.”
Mitigation of negative environmental impacts of projects implemented in a frame of foreign aid pledged to Georgia following the August 2008 armed conflict
The project was designed to 1) advocate for envisaging environment protection requirements in the process of implementation of various projects; 2) to support protection of environmental norms while extracting natural resources; 3) monitor legitimacy of issuing authorizations and licenses on environmental impact, construction and natural resources extraction; 4) elaboration/advocacy of alternative ways and mitigation activities; 5) support civil society participation in decision-making process in regard with environmental impacts; 6) protection of socio-economic rights of the potentially affected population.
Increasing the Strength of Partnership Between Media and Cooperation with Law Enforcement Institutions in Fight Against Trafficking
To support the growth of the strength of the Media in the struggle against trafficking, reinforcement of efforts for respect of human rights, stability and construction of a new mentality of civil and human values. The project focused on five cities in Albania.
Investigative Reporting Training and Publishing Project
The goal: to raise the investigative capacity of 8 to 10 journalists through intensive training.
Kosovo Current Affairs TV Project
The project’s goal was to support the production of a weekly current affairs program that has become the leading forum that stimulates debate between different interest groups in Kosovo.
Promoting Open Debate in Kosovo
The main output of the project is a weekly show bradcasted on the public television, which aims to promote: open debate about crucial issues for Kosovo, accountability in decision-making and introduce viewer driven content to a larger scale.
Televised pre-second round mayoral elections debates
The project soght to support and provide citizens more accountability of the political system in Kosovo, to enhance participation of citizens into institution making procedures and decision making processes.
Youth against corruption
The main goal of this country-wide undertaking was to enhance social awareness about anti-corruption activities, i.e. promoting discussion about corruption and strengthening anti-corruption behavior among citizens.
• Within the project an e-course was organized targeted at pupils, students, teachers to inform them about anti-corruption and mechanisms of fighting corruption. The course lasted 5 months in 2008 (5 parts all together accomplished by 45 participants).
• 21 local projects have been carried out, which encompassed not only schools but also local communities and some labor groups (e.g. doctors)
• A mini-library of corruption related materials was organized and may be found at www.ceo.org.pl/portal/b_mpk_eplatforma_antykorupcyjna_ebiblioteka_antykorupcyjna or www.wsap.edu.pl/_e_biblioteka.html
• Ethical code of conduct for public officials and teachers was elaborated and discussed
• A conference on the ethical code of conduct of public administration officials was organized (103 participants)
Research project: the participation of citizens in decision-making in 2009
The project goal was to analyze the perception and experiences of citizens and public officials regarding the participation of the citizens in decision-maiking. Finnally the CCI marks the progress in the influence of the citizens on decision making. The approch used for this analysis was the study of legal framework for the participation of citizens in decision-making and the research on the perception of citizens about their participation in decision-making.
Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
The goal is to help the people of the region better understand how organized crime and corruption affect their lives.
OCCRP seeks to provide in-depth investigative stories as well as the latest news pertaining to organized crime and corruption activities in the region. In addition to the stories, OCCRP is building an online resource center of documents related to organized crime including court records, laws, reports, studies, company records and other public documents that will be an invaluable resource center for journalists and the public alike.
The OCCRP project has been, or is, supported by grants from the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Open Society Foundations. Also on this site are projects funded in part or done in partnership with other organizations including SCOOP, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
OCCRP is a registered name of the Journalism Development Network, a Maryland-based charitable organization (501(c)3).
Source: OCCRP
Crime and culture
The research project aimed to develop means to optimize corruption prevention in the EU. urgency of such a project was reflected in the fact that corruption holds the potential to retard seriously the process of the Community’s enlargement and integration, even to the extent of threatening the very core of its concept of social order. The prevention policies that have been developed by the EU and implemented so far within individual member countries have in general been characterized by legislative, administrative and police force measures. These are based on a definition of corruption prevention developed in political and administrative institutions that, for its implementation, rely on a “top-down“ procedure. The research project purported to conduct not an inquiry into the nature of corruption “as such“, but rather into the perceptions of corruption held by political and administrative decision-makers in specific regions and cultures, those held by actors representing various institutions and authorities, and above all by the citizens and the media in European societies.
Citizens’ complaints on judicial inspection: increasing transparency and accountability of the judiciary toward the public
The project aimed at promoting the accountability and transparency of the judiciary through establishing effective ways of handling citizens’ complaints and increasing the involvement of the public in judicial inspections. The project sought to influence improvement of legislation with regard to the access of individuals to the judicial inspection process. In addition, the project was expected to increase information of the public regarding the procedures and ways of following up complaints regarding judges and courts, and in particular the public participation and cooperation during the inspection of judicial cases.
Anti-corruption measures at the Naturalisation Board of Latvia in the process of acquisition of citizenship
The project consisted in training seminars and an analysis report. Its goals were to: identify specific corruption risks within the process of acquisition of citizenship, evaluate their occurring probability and their level of harmful effect; develop probable solutions and propose short and long term recommendations; sensitize and train the staff of the Naturalisation Board on the issues of corruption risks and their minimization.
Corruption in the Process of Issuing Building Permits
The project represents a policy analysis of the process of issuing building permits. Formal standards, laws, and rules which regulate the receipt of building permits are unclear, contradictory, and at times even impossible to fulfill. At the same time, hardly any conflicts between the issuer and the recipient of a building permit are taken to court. Official arguments and differences of opinion are a very rare occurrence, and the question is why. The study offers an explanation – practice is regulated not so much by official rules, standards and legislation as by habit and a variety of corrupt practices to resolve or avoid disputes. The study is based on data compiled from surveys, observations, analysis of documents, interviews with experts, and focus-group discussions. The study maps the construction approval process.
Expenses of political parties before the local government and European Parliament elections in 2009
The project collected publicly available information on amount of advertising placed in the electronic media, internet and press. The project also analysed the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant legal framework and control.
Monitoring the level of corruption and anti-corruption measures
The objective: publishing the 2008 two issues of the Corruption Monitor and organizing an international working group meeting on disclosure.
Corruption? Common problem. Don’t complain – act.
One province-wide project aimed at the monitoring openness of all local governments within the Podlaskie province. The first stage was launched by PRYZMAT in July 2007 and lasted till June 2008, the continuation took place between and financed by the Stefan Batory Foundation. The main goal was to check local governments’ observance of law on the public information access and some anti-corruption regulations. Within this undertaking an analysis of court jurisdiction pertaining to exercising one’s right to public information was carried out as well as assessment of legal regulations in this matter. Additionally, a degree of compliance of local governments with the law on public information was monitored. Finally, informative action was carried out through posters, flyers and project website: www.jawnosc.pl. The project did not include outcome indicators.